Go Buy Archie Sonic 225 (probably)

Rarely, does the Gear blog recommend anything to buy.

Mostly because everyone's likes are whatever they want, and not all goods are a good fit for everyone. Certainly I don't own everything Sonic, nor want to. (No Calender of crud dolls for me!) However, when something's easily accessible, and likely to be pretty collectible/interesting/retain a value, it should at least get mentioned.

Caution: entry contains spoiler for issue.

PREVIOUS ENTRY contains more about SonicGear update for this week.

However...if you like the comic at all, or if you want a collectible piece that's pretty cheap, spending the 3 bucks to get this thing is probably a good idea. It's the first gatefold cover they ever did, and Spaz did it (fan fave artist, so that's always a good combination) Their history with repeating special covers is nill (the silver ink was used only on first run, thus making that one much more valuable) so the chance of this re-appearing later is close to zero, and it's on the shelves NOW--so I felt compelled to do an entry about it reminding everyone. (yes it will come up in compilations/books but it won't have the gatefold there)

Is it very Archie?
Will I like it if I'm a Sonic game player / regular item collector non-reader?
Yes, the cover and story are all extremely archie. Game players take it as you will. That's great if you like this sort of thing. The cover has Sonic and Sally in position 2, (Archie fans love!) along with Antoine.

Sega made them shoe-horn Tails in at the top (probably) or really why include him at all. (because he's not in the story at all-he has 2 active lines, again, very Archie very satam) The rest (under the gatefold) has the rest of your SatAm faves, and lands Amy close to the back. Where's Knuckles/Shadow/Sega people? He's never had anything to do with this particular story so he'd make no sense to include. DO note that that's not the fault of this issue/story, it's just how the plot has gone thus far, its not like they're purposely excluding during the banner issue or something. It isn't nefarious.

The back of the fold has a nice recap, so if you're STARTing your collection here, that's a good and handy move to use. (banner issues such as this do start fans off) The story itself is accessible enough: Eggman has a cosmic reset switch machine which he then uses. How much is reset is unknown, but the "OH NOES" development tells you how the whole thing will end and dissolves any over-reaching-mystery before it starts.

1. Eggman pushes cosmic reset switch in an attempt to "win"

2. Sally gets shot in the face by a machine gun and dies

3. Sonic must spend the next X issues figuring out what happened when switch was thrown

4. He un-does everything JUST in time to tell Sally to not go down that hallway

5. She does not, and all is righted, Eggman gets away

Of course there are still things no one can know such as if Ixus Naugus dies or goes good, if they decide to kill Nicole instead somehow or any number of other interesting developments. So it's not like her "Demise" has created something all-revealing/renders everything uninteresting but you do know the over-arching plot. They simply can't kill her, because she is a better & richer character than Sonic is** in the Archieverse and thus is too pivotal. When they tried it the first time, fanrage was so great her death would have killed the Sonic book.

(**Doubt Sally is better than Sonic? Her first killing proved it: HIS BOOK would have ended if SHE died. So she didn't.)

Yes, it does have something to do with Generations, and you'll be seeing a more game-like green hill, but as you also know the switch isn't permanent. How game-like will it be? How well done is it? They're all interesting questions and this book will start them off.

E3 Update 2011

Miss out on E3? Not live in California?

SonicGear (and about a zillion other places) have some coverage. You'll notice the E3 theme with the 2nd half of the update. Mascot suits, booth shots, the Generations statues, the cake, and a video are all part of the deal. The bounty of photos is spread into the appropriate categories on the site, and it made for quite a large update this time.

The booth this year seemed nice, the timeline effect for the walls was a good idea too. I'm disappointed in the modern Sonic statue, the eye is certainly a bit wonky and the body is strangely put together with giant belly dot. They've produced better statues (and worse ones too you know) so it's kind of unfortunate to see it slip.

The cake. Good concept, nice stars, cool level loop execution but who made the Sonic? Yikes. I didn't want to say anything on the entry, but I've seen better fan fondant work. Professionals need model sheets just as much as the next fan. Never underestimate fan power, either.

The swag: Seems like decent enough stuff. 2 shirts and a pair of carded buttons. It's normal, and it makes sense. These will def. be collectible since they're likely event exclusives. A large amount of the spikes hats were also given away, but those aren't new nor exclusive to E3.

The mail was actually a mega-flood this week.

Video page will not be added this week, nor the next. It could take 3 updates to make this thing work, even just get the mail back down to the previous week's total. Why did it happen this way? E3 coincidence with everything else flooding in...no real reason, I guess.

Be on the lookout for an extra archie post next.