Comic Book / Sonic X

El Gran Gordo never surrenders!

A comic series created by Archie Comics, Sonic X could be considered a Spin-Off of their long-running Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series, taking place in an alternate universe that is ostensibly the same one seen in the anime Sonic X (some time before the finale of the first series). The story, (as we're reminded at the beginning of every issue) is that Sonic and his friends have been transported to Earth by one of Dr. Eggman's machines, and now they do battle with the doctor here, while hanging around the house of the insanely wealthy Chris Thorndyke on their off time.

That's about the point where any sense of restraint gets thrown out the window.

The series lasted for forty issues (November 2005-February 2009) before the executives at Archie decided to pull the plug. It focused more on lighthearted slapstick and fun than ongoing storylines, though it did have a few, such as the evil organization S.O.N.I.C.X. and Eggman's stint as the beloved lucha libre wrestler, El Gran Gordo. Unfortunately, as a result of the early cancellation, things were wrapped up hastily, and a planned conclusion of the El Gran Gordo storyline (and presumably others) never saw the light of day.

Still, short as it was, it was fun while it lasted.

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This comic book contains examples of:

• Adaptation Personality Change: Less of an intentional change and more of a result of the writer not fully grasping the characters' personalities, but the comic made Sonic less of an Aloof Ally and more of a goody-two-shoes like his Archie counterpart, and gave Sam Speed a temper.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In Issue #25, S.O.N.I.C.X. has created duplicates of Sonic that come in red, orange, yellow, green, and purple, later a blue one as well. The first five Sonic duplicates cause chaos in Station Square: The red one smashes cars, the yellow one throws bricks at windows, the purple one destroys fruit stands, the green one attacks a policeman, while the orange one is being rude at restaurants.
• Affably Evil: Dr. Eggman, especially later on.
• Anti-Villain: While Dr. Eggman starts out as villainous as always, he becomes less antagonistic as the series goes on and his Masked Luchador persona takes over.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Vector gets transformed into a giant by S.O.N.I.C.X.
• Bald of Evil: Dr. Eggman, obviously.
• Beach Episode: Sort of. Issue #34 is a pool party.
• Becoming the Mask: Eggman as El Gran Gordo. It's originally a ploy to earn quick cash, but the doctor ends up loving his role as a hero to the people.
• Book Ends: The cover for the issue 40 (the final issue) is in some ways similar the the cover of the first issue.
• Breakout Character: Dr. Eggman starts in a typical villainous role, but soon becomes the primary focus of most of the stories.
• The Bus Came Back: Both Tikal and Chaos make a return in the comics after being essentially becoming spirits of Angel Island, with Chaos on the side of good and fighting off Eggman. Chaos also makes a surprise appearance in both Issues #28-29, with Eggman reviving him for his scheme to flatten Station Square with his Perfect form, albeit reluctantly. When Chaos returns to normal, he sinks back into the water and heads back to Angel Island and the Master Emerald to live in peace.
• Call-Back: When Eggman appears in the El Gran Gordo costume in Issue 35, Sonic reminds him that he told him to get rid of that costume back in Issue 32.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Whenever Robotnik pretends to be El Gran Gordo, he actually displays a surprising level of strength. Once his tricks wear off against Sonic, he manages to put up a decent fight, and later when he returns to the costume he matches someone far larger and stronger and - after seeing Chris Thorndyke crying at his "champion" losing - pulls a Heroic Second Wind and wins the fight.
• Crossover: Shadow's battle with Metal Sonic stretches across three comics in Archie's series: it starts in Sonic the Hedgehog #196, then passes through Sonic X #40, and ends in Sonic Universe #1.
• Continuity Snarl:
  • The series is supposed to be set between the anime's Chaos and Shadow sagas. However, it depicts Station Square as being in its prime, even though it was supposed to be in ruins following the former saga's events. When fans brought up this massive continuity error, the writer admitted that the reason for it was that he hadn't watched the episodes, so he was unaware the city had been decimated.
  • Card Passer, a GUN General who led an unauthorized attack on Eggman in Episode 50, right before the heroes left home, appears in the comic (which takes place solely on Earth) and even mentions those events. Ian Flynn eventually Hand Waved this by saying that the time slowed down due to Sonic's presence, allowing him and the other to stay on Earth, which means that over half of the comic series takes place during Episode 50.
  • Eventually, the comic came into its own, with more influence from the mainline comic books than the anime.
• Cut Short: While it started the year after its parent work ended, it ended with an And the Adventure Continues panel rather than any real resolution.
• A Day in the Limelight: Dr. Eggman in most of the second half of the series.
• Demonic Possession: Like Amy in the anime, Cream and Chris's mothers were possessed by ghosts at one point. Cream helped the ghosts return to their world to save them both.
• Demoted to Extra: Compared to the anime, Chris mainly just acts as Sonic's connection involving most things in the human world and is largely a background character used for gags. Not that anyone was complaining, mind you.
• Denser and Wackier: Compared to the anime anyway, with puns and Laughably Evil "villains" a-plenty. The El Gran Gordo subplot takes it to almost Gag Series levels.
• Earth Drift: Inverted compared to the anime and other Sonic works. The human world is a Fictional Earth, unlike the Constructed Worlds of the franchise's other continuities.
• Enemy Mine: Sonic teaming up with Dr. Eggman... Er, the masked hero, El Gran Gordo.
• Evil Knock Off: In Issue # 18 Dr. Eggman created a robotic duplicate of Rouge.
• Eyelid Pull Taunt: Bokkun pulls this in Issue #39 to provoke Vector.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: Sonic and Eggman end up switching bodies. Neither is very good at their respective skills. Eggman as Sonic keeps crashing into things, and Sonic as Eggman can hardly pilot the Eggmobile.
• Friendly Enemy: Sonic's and Eggman's relationship. When Eggman's not launching an evil scheme, the two are practically friends. They have civilized conversations, face off in (mostly) friendly competitions... Sonic even helps Dr. Eggman get back in control of his secret lair so he can get back to launching his evil schemes again. When Eggman shows up for a party, nobody bats an eye, either. Eggman's just the friendly neighborhood supervillain.
• Fun with Acronyms: Society for Observing and Neutralizing Inter-dimensional Creatures and Xenomorphs... or S.O.N.I.C.X.!
• Furry Confusion: Sonic comes upon a realistic hedgehog and wonders where its sneakers are.
• Girl Posse: Milan Ramada's two-girl "entourage". They just follow her around while she tries to make others feel miserable.
• Going Down with the Ship: "Captain Eggman" promotes his cannon to captain and tells it to go down with the ship after Sonic damages it.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Sonic and Eggman civilly compete in competitions like wrestling and pet shows when they aren't battling for the fate of the Earth.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: S.O.N.I.C.X. tries to turn Sonic into one of these and fails miserably.
• Heroic Second Wind: With Eggman of all characters. When Eggy is on the receiving end of a Curb-Stomp Battle by Andes the Ginormous, he sees a teary-eyed Chris Thorndyke, who doesn't want to see his beloved hero wrestler lose. Eggman is inspired to not give up, managing to pull a comeback victory and win the championship.
• How Do I Shot Web?: Sonic and Eggman get their brains switched in Issue #37. They both run into this problem: Eggman can't control Sonic's speed and constantly crashes into things, and Sonic can't figure out Eggman's technology and can barely pilot the Eggmobile.
• Identity Impersonator: In "The Return of El Gran Gordo", Eggman has Bokkun attack the town disguised as him so he can convince people he's not El Gran Gordo.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Eggman is as bumbling as ever, though the newly formed villain squad S.O.N.I.C.X. make him look competent. Nearly all their planning seems to have a severe backfire, even choosing their organisation name (the acronym wasn't intentional).
• Lighter and Softer: Compared to the mainline Archie comics running at the time, this series is much, much sillier, having Eggman toe the line between Harmless Villain to Not-So-Harmless Villain depending on the issue, the stakes are a lot lower when compared to the dramatic arcs of mainline Archie.
• Look Behind You: A bad guy distracts Charmy by asking "Hey, what's that over there?"
• Love at First Sight: Eggman loses his mind for Ella in issue #34.
• Make My Monster Grow: In issue #38, S.O.N.I.C.X. tries to turn Sonic into a giant monster, but they end up turning Vector the Crocodile into one instead. In the next issue, Eggman makes Bokkun grow giant as well so he can fight the giant Vector and save Station Square so Eggman can make himself look like a hero.
• Makeup Weapon: The G.U.N. Lipstick Laser is a standard issue tool used by agents of the Guardian Units of the Nations. It is made to look like a normal tube of lipstick, but is in fact a laser capable of cutting glass. Somehow, the Rogue Rouge was able to get her hands on a G.U.N. Lipstick Laser, which she used to steal the Moon Emerald. She then discarded it in the museum, where it was later found by G.U.N., who identified it as one issued to Rouge the Bat herself. Rouge later use it herself to break free from a trap.
• Manly Facial Hair: Dr. Eggman, of course. He takes the badass part to brand new levels, especially as El Gran Gordo.
  • His mustache takes priority too. In the first issue, Eggman postpones his evil scheme because "tonight is the night I wax my moustache!"
• Masked Luchador: Eggman as El Gran Gordo, and Sonic as El Rapido Azule.
• Meaningful Name: El Gran Gordo (EGG). Translated, it's "The Big Fat", which Eggman most certainly is.
• My Beloved Smother: Vanilla had once considered moving Cream and Cheese out of Station Square because of frequent Eggman attacks. She changed her mind later when she was rescued by her daughter.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In one issue, Sonic has to deal with a group of Sonic duplicates out to muddy his reputation. The last of these duplicates looks exactly like Sonic did back in the Boxart for the US Genesis games.
  • In the St Patrick's day issue, Cheese turns green after spending the morning hanging out with Sonic. In Sonic Adventure, Chao that have been exposed to lots of run-stat animals turn green.
• Never Recycle Your Schemes: Subverted. In Issue #28, what starts off as a typical Monster of the Week issue with Eggman looking to harness the power of recycling ends up turning into a clever trap that allows him to re-summon Chaos from the Master Emerald, powered by the seven Chaos Emeralds to turn into Perfect Chaos and destroy Station Square to build Eggmanland on top of. Unlike the last time, where Chaos betrayed him after gaining the power of all seven, Chaos is bound by Eggman's machine and is forced to do his bidding with a shock collar.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Andes the Ginormous is a parody of the late Pro wrester André the Giant.
• Oddly Small Organization: S.O.N.I.C.X. tries to be a Nebulous Evil Organization, but being a very small and inept group of Sonic haters makes them more Plucky Comic Relief than anything.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Sonic sees "Eggman" robbing a bakery and a candy store, he quickly catches on that this "Eggman" is actually Bokkun in disguise.
• Opening Narration: Every issue opens with a narration about how Sonic was transported to Earth, often given by the characters themselves.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Eggman puts on a lucha libre outfit and begins wrestling in an attempt to get some cash. Everyone falls for it except Sonic. Many female cast members even become infatuated with him.
  • Eggman does this all the time. And just about every time, Sonic's the only one who isn't fooled. Some of Eggman's disguises include, but are not limited to: Santa Clause, the mechanic Robbie Nick, the viking Aggman der Terrible, pirate Cap'n Eggman, and much more. In issue 35, we see that Eggman has a whole collection of costumes, wigs, and other disguise paraphernalia, including a Chris Thorndyke costume.
• Pro Wrestling Is Real: The three issues dedicated to Eggman posing as the wrestler El Grand Gordo treats wrestling as an actual sport without any of the kayfabe or scripted outcomes from promotions like WWE. As such, Eggman can get away with winning championships and being an undisputed contender by shamelessly cheating his way to victory with magnets to restrict his opponents' movements. He later appears on a wrestling show without warning after being called out on TV, and gets his butt handed to him by Andes the Ginormous, as Eggman doesn't have any actual skills in wrestling but still decided to take on the challenge. Despite his lack of skill, Eggman somehow manages to overcome the odds to defeat Andes.
• Restricted Expanded Universe: Archie isn't allowed to incorporate characters from the games that weren't featured in the show, nor were they allowed to make any real changes to the status quo.
• Rich Bitch: When Milan Ramada and her entourage can't sit at their favorite table at the local ice cream parlor and must either sit elsewhere or wait until the customers at the table leave, she threatens to have her father build another ice cream parlor across the street just to drive it out of business.
• Running Gag: Eggman and his cronies have only the loosest understanding of money, the concept of which apparently doesn't exist in the universe he and Sonic originate from. Whenever Eggman or his robots refer to money, they always call it "little green pieces of paper".
• Shout-Out: As a more-or-less gag comic, shout-out humor is practically a given. A few examples:
  • "Eggman's already stolen forty cakes! That's terrible!"
  • One issue ends with this exchange:
    Eggman: Let's get out of here, and prepare for tomorrow night.
    Bokkun: Why? What are we going to do tomorrow night?
    Eggman: The same thing we do every night, Bokkun...
  • In addition to name-dropping Céline Dion, "Muerta! Las Vegas" has a cameo by a blonde crime scene investigator with an uncanny resemblance to Catherine Willows.
  • In Issue # 30 one of Eggman's Clown robots looks like The Joker.
• St. Patrick's Day Episode: Issue #17 is St. Patrick's Day-themed and set during the holiday in question. The plot revolved around Bokkun spilling green paint on himself and Eggman mistaking him for a leprechaun. Having just learned that leprechauns have pots of gold, Eggman chases after him, which leads to Eggman crashing a St. Patrick's Day parade Sonic and his friends are attending and a fight ensues.
• Super-Scream: In issue #36, Cream lets out a sonic scream in order to rescue a judge and her kitten from a group of unruly dogs. However, Cream hasn't used this in any bits of the Sonic franchise since. Now, ain't that a shame...
• Traced Artwork: The issues (15, 16) drawn by Todd Wahnish for the series has traced artwork from the anime adaptation. Here's a compilation by the Thanks, Ken Penders blog.
• Trade Snark: Eggman introduces a robot version of himself called Egg-Gantor in issue #6 - and then, in small print: "™ Eggman Corporation, all rights reserved! So there!"
• Training from Hell:
  • Knuckles puts Sonic through this prior to his match with El Gran Gordo.
  • Meanwhile, Eggman is going through similar training. It helps - he still loses to Sonic, but even after his plot to win fails, he still puts up a decent fight - it isn't a Curb-Stomp Battle (see Charles Atlas Superpower above)
• Trapped in Another World: Sonic and friends are trapped in Chris's world, just like in the animated series the comic is based on. #40 features an alternate version of Shadow the Hedgehog, who likewise accidentally ends up in Chris's world during a fight with Metal Sonic. They both leave again at the end of the issue.
• Twist Ending: What seems like a typical Monster of the Week comic with a Green Aesop-theme in Issue #28 suddenly raises the stakes dramatically by the end. It reveals that Eggman went back to his Perfect Chaos scheme, reviving Chaos from the Master Emerald, wanting to use his power to destroy Station Square. While the scheme is foiled in the next issue, going from Eggman's robots to Perfect Chaos is a bit of a step up.
• Ungrateful Bitch: Milan Ramada. When Sonic saves her and several other people from missiles shot by Eggman, she berates Sonic for letting Eggman take advantage of the distraction to steal her limousine.
• Villain Protagonist: By the end of the comic's run, Eggman is practically the main character. Granted, he was holding onto his "villain" role by a thread by that point.
• Waxing Lyrical: Issue #4 has the characters quote a song from Grease.
  Eggman: Ha ha, Sonic! I've got juice! It's multiplying!
  Amy And I'm losing control!
  Tails: Cuz the power he's supplying...
  Sonic: Is electrifying!

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