Forward
OK so this is a blog I’ve been meaning to do for a
LOOOOOOOOONG time. A blog addressing feats and characters from Archie Sonic
comics. It’s an issue that comes up every time a Sonic character gets into
Death Battle, and frankly a recent addition to the website Tv tropes
complaining about the inclusion of media from this comic finally set me over
the edge and made me get off my lazy ass.
Frankly everyone seems to have this idea that Archie Sonic characters are all OP. That they’re all MFTL dimension destroyers or something incredibly ridicules like that. In fact the reputation for this media being overpowered has catapulted so far out of control, that you can barely even talk about it anymore without immediately being shut down by tons of people on almost any forum for using such deviant Sonic material.
Well personally as a long time reader of the comic I can’t
help but think that a lot of things people say regarding its placement vs wise
are total bullshit. Frankly 99% of the
time people talk about Archie Sonic they take things out of context or parrot
things they’ve heard without actually reading the full comic.
It really needs to stop and to accomplish that I’m going to
go through all the “OP feats” and “op characters” one by one to deconstruct the
false beliefs about them. Hopefully this will prove useful for people to use as
a reference it this issue comes up again.
For a reference by the way SCE= Sonic comic encyclopedia.Most of the the other abbreviations should be pretty self explanatory. I’m going to assume people understand most basic Sonic concepts. Additionally there were two Eggman’s in the
original comics run. An original who went by the name of Robotnik and an
alternate one from another dimension called
Eggman who came to Sonic’s world
after the original died.
Laying down some context
So before we begin I feel like I need to lay down some
context for a few Archie subjects people often times get confused about. Firstly
the internal writing consistency and different eras of the book. What exactly
zones are and the differences between the chaos emeralds in the comic and
games.
The “eras” of Archie Sonic
The silly era
Archie comics didn’t start off a serious action oriented
adventure comic. In fact while it was technically inspired by the fairly
serious and then well-known Satam Sonic cartoon of the 1990s, it also took many
cues from the sillier and more gag oriented adventures of sonic the hedgehog
show of the same time period. Characters
from that show like Scratch, grounder and coconuts even appeared fairly
regularly early on in the comic run.
STH 2 pg 9
Because of this the early era of the comics had a slew of 4th
wall breaking, typically having characters directly reference the reader or asking
them to help them with tasks in the book.
STH 1 pg 17
STH 2 pg 17
STH 4 pg 10
STH 11 pg 15
STH 13 pg 5
STH 25 pg 25
STH 31 pg 24
STH mini 0 pg 5
The plots of early comics also tended to be fairly
nonsensical, and child friendly.
STH 15 pg 23
STH 16 pg 5
and occasionally the comic spurned onto elements of blatant toon
force. Typically with Sonic doing things that were quite frankly physically
impossible or being in situations that were illogical for the sake of laughs.
STH 7 pg 14
STH 8 pg 10
STH 33 pg 8
Now a lot of people say the comic kept a tone like this up
until around issue 25, where an actual plot started to kick in after Robotnik built
metal Sonic. But in my personal opinion I’d say this era lasted until around at
least the mids 30s if not all the way until the classic “endgame” arch started
in the late 40s.
The classic (WTF) era
50-160
STH 152 pg 15
Starting after endgame arch in the 50s, the comic got a bit
more serious and story oriented in both good and bad ways. Some of the writers
of this period started a bad habit of writing about relationship drama, as well
as inflating the cast and taking the story in occasionally weird directions.
There was also a pretty infamous rivalry between the two authors Ken penders
and Karl Bollars over the direction of the story, which caused the consistency
of the plot to flip flop a bit.
Given the comic was based on two early cartoons of the Sonic series made when the games didn’t have fleshed out story, the general foundation for the comics world also clashed A LOT when Sega started actually adding storylines into Sonic during the sonic adventure era. A lot of this inconsistency remained until around the 160s or so.
The Ian Flynn era
It was probably around 160 where the comics gained more
internal consistency in writing and tone, with a new writer Ian Flyne taking
over. He’s written ever issue since, and until the recent reboot, had focused a
lot on closing loose plot threads, introducing new sega game sonic characters
and bringing more outdated concepts of the comic more into line with their game
counterparts (reducing the number of emeralds to seven for
example).
His nearly 150 issue run is probably what I would consider
the “modern run” of the Sonic comic, and is typically the consistency I think
most people should judge the comic by today.
Pre-genesis to
post-genesis
While Ian’s still the current writer of the comic, a big
shake up around issue 251 Shook up the comic world immensely. Basically the
previous writer Ken Penders sued for the rights to certain comic original
characters in the book. The legal troubles caused by him where so great the
comic basically had to soft-reboot and purge tons of previous characters and
world concepts to start from scratch.
The reboot is referred to as Post-genesis and the old
continuity is called Pre-Genesis. Post is pretty much its own beast, though
certain characters retained memories of the old world. For the sake of
simplicity nothing from post is really going to be talked about in depth here, particularly given most of the feats and characters worth talking about are from
pre.
What is a zone?
Ok so this is probably one of the first things that needs to
be addressed given several different calcs and assumptions are based around
abusing it.
What exactly is a zone in the sonic Archie comics pre-genesis?
Well honestly it’s actually an umbrella term of sorts.
According to the SCE a “zone” can refer to a completely alternate plane of
reality, akin to that you would find in in say the marvel multiverse. A zone
can also be a pocket dimension, which is only somewhat separate from a main
dimension but smaller than a full alternate reality. Finally a zone can refer
to geographical area, such as a forest in a woodland.
SCE pg 105
You can see the basic description of zones in this scan.
Though I’ll also elaborate a bit more below.
Alternate reality
zones
SSS 10 pg 21
Like I said alternate reality zones are just that, a
completely alternate realities comprising an entire universe. All alternate
reality zones in the Sonic comic are also said to be offshoots of the main
universe. What’s probably the easiest example of an alternate reality zone, is
the sol zone which is
the zone Blaze inhabits. Another famous zone is anti-Mobius, kind of a bizarre
version of the main Sonic universe that contains evil versions of all the main
characters.
Pocket zones
Pocket zones do not have a defined size, though they have
been at least the size of cities. A good example of a pocket zone was the
dimensional space the city of echidnaopolis was placed inside (through
technology).
SCE pg 39
Another called city knothole also got trapped within a small
pocket dimension, due to outside interference on Robotnik’s part.
KTE 4 pg 24
KTE 5 pg 22
The pre-genesis “special zone” was also one of these, being
a mixture of two prior pocket zones called the zone of silence and the void
(though worth mentioning there was actually more than one special zone feature
in the comic overall).
SCE pf 113
Pocket zones do not need to be offshoots of the main Sonic
verse, as even alternate dimension zones have been said to have their own
parallel versions of the pocket dimensions found in the main universe. An
example of this being the zone of silence existing in anti Mobius, while it
also existed as a major plot point in on the regular Mobius.
SSS 10 pg 16
This has also been confirmed by Shadow and Tails on one
occasion.
STH 169 pg 11
Geographical zones
Finally geo graphical zones. These are pretty
self-explanatory. Some examples of these include Sandopplis zone on Angle
Island.
KTE mini 2 pg 5
Common ways to
transport between zones
OK so another point worth talking about. How exactly do
Sonic and co transport themselves between zones and pocket zones. Well here’s
the answer.
SCE pg 130
One way is through various types of technology. For example stands called star posts can created
portals between dimensions.
STH 189 pg 2
Another common method of travel is warp rings.
STH 195 pg 11
Other forms of technology also exists for this purpose.
STH 156 pg 13
Lastly those with various types of chaos powers (generally
chaos control) or certain magical abilities can also cross between dimensions.
KTE 3 pg 21
SS Bast pg 19
The cosmic
interstate
It’s was also possible to cross between dimensions using a
dimensional crossway called the “cosmic interstate”. It was basically a road
through space/time that connects different worlds.
STH 11 pg 3
Movement into the cosmic interstate was normally heavily
regulated by a multiversal police cop called Zonic, who actually allowed Sonic
to access it or created portals for him to enter alternate dimensions in his
early days without him knowing it.
SSS 8 pg 10
That being said after the events of Sonic 50 and the firing
of a space/time weapon called the ultimate annihilator, some barriers between
the dimensions broke down a bit allowing characters to move between dimensions
more easily.
STH 59 pg 3
Zonic also had a harder time keeping track of unregulated
zone travel after this, as well as because of war he was fighting against a
character named Eggman nega later in the comics run.
Creating zones
On a final note zones or at least pocket zones can be
created through artificial means.
Eggman did this in issue 25, creating the collision chaos zone. http://i.imgur.com/ZoKzGhL.jpg , http://i.imgur.com/CmShAOa.jpg http://i.imgur.com/JE26Bx6.jpg
Eggman and wily also used chaos energy to make a pocket zone in Megaman 24
The firing of Eggman’s ultimate annihilator weapon in STH 50 created several zones.
Chaos emeralds have given off energy that have created new zones spontaneously in SS triple trouble.
Chaos Emeralds and their properties
SCE pg 124
It should be noted that there are several different types
“emerald” in the Archie verse than the game verse and that the comic’s concepts
for how they work differs slightly from the games. Basically Archie comics has
a concept similar to the speed force from the flash when it comes to chaos energy,
called the “chaos force”. It’s like a huge mystical energy field that people
can draw power from. Some people like shadow and knuckles can naturally draw
some power from it, though others use objects like Chaos emeralds(which have a
more natural link to the force) to do so.
Now early on in the comics run there were actually dozens of green chaos emeralds all over Sonic’s planet, which the characters would use for super transformations and such. The other colors of chaos emeralds instead existed elsewhere in the universe, and had unique properties to them. For example red ones created evil clones
STH 126 pg 11
STH 126 pf 12
It wasn’t until much later in the comics run that the
writers wrote in a plot that merged all these emeralds into seven, which then
worked similarly to their game counterparts.
STH 170 pg 4
Additionally the comic contained objects called “super
emeralds”. These were not simply powered up versions of the chaos emeralds like
in the games. Instead they were actually lifeforms known as chao, who absorbed
power from a monster named chaos turning into a crystalline state.
SSS 13 pg 7
A super emerald appeared to have much more power than a
normal one and appeared to change Sonic’s physical state. It also allowed him
to warp time (speeding it up) on a global scale.
STH 71 pg 15
The chaos who made up these emeralds transformed back to
normal and left Mobius however, making them unavailable for further use.
STH 84 pg 19
The “OP” feats
So this is what the majority of the blog is going to be
spent on addressing. A lot of people consider Archie Sonic to be OP because of
certain feats constantly parroted among the vs community regarding him. Well
honestly I believe many of these have been taken out of context, so I feel as
going through each one by one to explain the misconceptions around them would
be of a great benefit.
The Ultimate annihilator
This is one of the easiest feats to deconstruct, so let’s
start with it. The ultimate annihilator was a weapon created by the original
Dr. Robotnik, that had the power to “erase things from existence” using timey
whimey technology.
STH 50 pg 10
SSS 6 pg 28
In order to use the weapon you need to program in a specific
bio signature of an object you want to erase, and then when the energy of the
weapon hit those bio signatures they would be destroyed while everything else was
left untouched. The canon is also meant to reflect off a satellite in space
allowing the user to aim for their targets exactly.
SSS 6 pg 31
Now here’s when the feat comes in. Due to some sabotage on
the side of the freedom fighters, a malfunction occurred that caused the
ultimate annihilator to explode and for its energy to bounce back across
Sonic’s reality. This energy engulfed Sonic and Robotnik while they were having
their final fight, seemingly destroying them both. Surprisingly however Sonic
survived the blast while Robotnik didn’t and hence the entire sequence was
considered a durability feat for Sonic.
Additionally given it was stated the ultimate annihilator weakened barriers between zones and in fact created a few in some scans, it was also presumed that the feat could be considered multiversal(generally based on the incorrect assumption that all zones are entire dimensions).
Additionally given it was stated the ultimate annihilator weakened barriers between zones and in fact created a few in some scans, it was also presumed that the feat could be considered multiversal(generally based on the incorrect assumption that all zones are entire dimensions).
Now unfortunately this feat falls apart ALOT when examined further. According to the SCE when the ultimate annihilator blew back it effected the ENTIRE PLANET of Mobius, causing everything to blink in and out of existence for a brief moment. Sonic wasn’t unique in terms of getting hit by it and was simply the closets to where the blast originated. So you know if he has multiversal durability from this, so do all the birds and trees in the world.
SCE pg 134
This is also confirmed to be what happened in one of the
issues of the KE comic book.
KTE 6 pg 11
Likewise it was also confirmed both in the encyclopedia scan
above and in Sonic 50, that the character Snively had sabotaged the ultimate annihilator
and had reprogramed its energy to only effect those with Robotnik’s bio
signature.
SSS 6 pg 38
Sonic was never in any danger from this weapon, and in fact
could not be harmed by it. The SCE even mentions he merely blipped out of
existence along with everything else due to the blast while being untouched,
not that he tanked it.
So there Sonic did not tank this weapon, and it’s pretty much confirmed in source material everyone was effected by the weapon the same way and where immune for the same exact reasons.
It does not grant multiversal durability. It’s pretty clear
cut.
The Zone bust feat
SS Super sonic vs
hyper knuckles pg 27
Ok so this feat. Let’s talk about it more in depth.
The basic rundown of this feat is that Sonic and knuckles are running towards each other in their super forms at maximum speed (incalculable even) and their collision breaks down the walls of a Zones reality, causing it to be obliterated. The belief is that this puts both characters at universal
levels of power given the zone was PRESUMABLEY the size of an entire universe.
Well there’s actually a couple problems with this theory. Right off the bat the actual size of the zone entered during Super sonic vs Hyper knuckles has always been an assumption perpetuated by those who don’t know a lot about the comic. There is no context behind the zones size in the comic itself, and there is no reason to believe this was a gigantic alternate reality given we know the word zone can refer to multiple things. Frankly It was probably just a small pocket dimension, and even most sonic wikis for the comic list it as such.
Heck to be honest if the comic itself didn’t even mention the “walls of reality” I would question if this was even a pocket zone, rather than a geographical zone. The characters never have to go through a notable portal to get into it and Sally even refers to that source as Subterrnean in sonic quest.
Sonic quest 1 pg 11
Additionally some of the context of the feat throws the
amount of force given into question. The entrance to this zone was literally
found in a hole in the ground under a tree.
SS S v K pg 13
SS S v K pg 14
Likewise when the fight was over the heroes got
ejected/flung into the air and landed right near the entrance.
SS S V K pg 30
Now maybe I’m missing something but I’m pretty sure Sonic
and Knuckles would have flown a lot further I the damage they caused was as
over the top as universe busting. Likewise more damage would have been caused
to the outside world given the entrance was literally right there.
Now to BE fair this feat does still sound fairly impressive based on the description alone, but honestly I’m not sure you have much to draw from in that aspect either. “INCALCUABLE SPEED” could mean almost anything. It could be talking about a speed beyond our normal concept of time, it could just be exaggeration, it could be a fancy way to say really really fast,ect. Likewise exactly how much energy it would take to break the fabric of reality isn’t something you could measure definitively.
Aditionally even giving the benefit of the doubt, I also have to ask JUST how much force it takes to destroy a pocket dimension. It’s entirely possible that they may be more inherently unstable than normal more fleshed out reality zones.
For example Interestingly in Super sonic special sonic blast, the concept of a pocket zone breaking down on itself gets brought up again in the flicky pocket zone. Eggman removes a chaos emerald from a flicky bird statue and said statue comes to life and starts releasing a screeching noise that breaks down the zone. Sonic himself even notes the sensation is the exact same as it was when he and knux destroyed a zone in Super sonic vs hyper knuckles.
SS Blast pg 22
SS Blast pg 23
Granted this thing was clearly bobby trapped from the start,
but seriously a nameless living statue with no chaos emeralds, no feats, ect
can destroy an entire pocket zone with a roar. I mean either doing this shit in
the context of the comic is easier than people have been lead to believe or that
we have a universal level bird statue on our hands(assuming you still want to
claim that despite Pocket zones clearly being much smaller).
On another note no this is not the same Zone sent sonic to in issues 4 of the comic. In fact it was mentioned by multiple characters that there were several zones where you could find chaos emeralds and rings.
Sonic quest 1 pg 9
SS S v K pg 7
The quantum dial
STH 125 pg 25
OK so this is another feat we need to talk about. Basically
the quantum dial is a super weapon used by an alien race called the Xorda. It’s
a small spire with a fin connected to it that spins around the ground and opens
up a rift in space time as the fin touches the ground beneath it. When it
completes a full circle the rift it creates becomes a black hole purging
everything in that nearby sector of space.
STH 125pg 13
STH 125 pg 14
In issue 125 Sonic runs around this weapon at super speed
forcing it to close, which is thereby considered counter acting the force of a
black hole by many vs debtors.
…..but there’s a few problems here.
It’s never implied the machine used pure physical force to create its rift in space-time. In fact I find it much more likely it uses some form of alien tech to accomplish the feat, given the shape of the machine gives no room for leverage anyway. A black hole also isn’t created until the ENTIRE rotational cycles is completed, something specifically stated by a Xorda member in one of those above scans. So basically there would never have been the force of an entire black hole involved in this machine until it finished its cycle anyway.
Likewise what Sonic did in issue 125 was never stated to have anything to do with combating the force of a black hole. The quantum dial has internal gears which cause the fin section of the machine to spin counter clockwise. This is ALSO mentioned by a Xorda member in one of the above pics.
The Plan that Sonic and co were exploring was running in the
opposite direction of the quantum dial, causing a force that would make the
machines gears reverse in the opposite direction, which would destroy them.
STH 125 pg 21
Now on another note the explosion at the end. There’s no way
to really measure how powerful this destructive blast was. All that we know is
that Nicole said it would implode.
Additionally it was implied that Nicole was incorrect in her assessment anyway. The implosion of the quantum dial actually transported Sonic to a deep part of space light years away. An act that was stated to more or less be a miracle and a fluke on Sonic’s end. For those who say he physically flung to his position all across the vastness of space by the way….well implosion suggests it should have been the opposite. It’s more likely sonic was drawn into the space/time rift made by the quantum dial when it imploded, bringing him to his destination.
STH 126 pg 2
STH 130 pg 2
So you know again given Sonic a boost in stats based on this
feat is pretty inadvisable.
Mammoth mogul destroys the multiverse
STH 149 pg 14
This is probably the most heavily abused and taken out of
context feat in the entire sonic Archie fandom. I cannot tell you how many
times I’ve seen Archie characters get brought up in vs threads, only for one
person to post a single pic of this feat and for everyone to scale virtually
every character to it.
To be blunt .YES Mogul did destroy several zones/universes. Zonic in Sonic isu 149 states as much and it was shown on panel that he did so.
STH 149 pg 18
However NOOOOOOOO he does not scale to anybody and no this
was not a power he could wield normally under most circumstances. THERE WAS
SIGNIFICANT CONTEXT TO THIS FEAT. Around the time period of this comic mogul
manipulated chaos knuckles (a powered up version of knuckles) into blasting him
with all the chaos energy he had stored in his body, empowering him.
Additionally when knuckles died as a result of unleashing
all his power, he was given a chance to become a part of the chaos force in the
afterlife, which he refused.
STH 124 pg 25
STH 125 pg 7
STH 125 pg 16
This was explained to have caused an imbalance in the chaos
force which gave Mogul an opportunity to use his newfound power to take full
control of the ENTIRE chaos force itself(not even just becoming a part of it
like some other characters), becoming virtually omnipotent. This is something
Zonic mentions in STH 149.
STH 139 pg 19
STH 149 pg 20
Mogul was arguably much more powerful than any other entity
in the comic in this form, and the form he took in this comic was far beyond
his base. It’s not a level of power anybody in the comic has ever matched or been
shown to match under any circumstances.
The only reason why he could even be defeated was because of HIGHLY extenuating circumstances. Tails was a “the chosen one” prophesized to save the world from this exact situation and merged together with countless versions of himself from alternate dimensions to become a cosmic being on the same order of magnitude as mogul in this storyline. He then stole the chaos energy from mogul back and basically used his power to press a cosmic reset button that removed memories of the events from several people.
STH 150 pg 22
Also worth mentioning mogul one shots Sonic in this form.
STH 150 pg 21
This is not a benchmark of power that you can compare every
other character in the verse to. It’s a gigantic outlier that could only
happened under specific circumstances and was only defeated under them as well.
Cosmic highway feat
SCE pg 105
This is another annoying one. In this feat Sonic runs across
the cosmic highway to recruit alternate versions of himself to fight an
alternate version of Eggman. The final showdown happens in an area of space
time that Sonics can only get to from the cosmic highway. During the trip the
Sonic passes a sign that says 140,000 light years to the next exit. People use
this as a benchmark for how long the cosmic highway is, saying Sonic must be
MFT in base to travers, much less use it multiple times in singular days.
So a couple of things. Firstly you don’t actually see Sonic run any length of distance in the issue where that sign appears. In the comic Sonic and his alternate selves enter the cosmic interstate and by the time they show up in another panel they’ve already reached the sign post. We don’t know how far they’ve run, just that supposedly going forward from the junctions where they stopped they have 148,000 light years to the next exit.
STH 19 pg 12
STH 19 pg 14
of course in story they don’t actually need to run to one of
those supposed exits given their destination(the neutral zone) was right at
that junction anyway.
STH 19 pg 15
Additionally basing a lot of calcs on this sign is
ridicules, as to be honest early on in the comics run the cosmic interstate tended
to have tons of goofy signs and markers for the sake of visual gags. They don’t
necessarily need to be taken super seriously. The cosmic interstate is also
fairly inconsistent in its design and even maps given in universe don’t tend to
make actual logical sense. The fact most of Sonic’s use of the cosmic
interstate happened on early on the more silly/toon force era of the comic also
throw things into question.
STH 19 pg 3
STH 11 pg 4
STH 11 pg 12
Another thing worth mentioning is that Sonic isn’t the only
one who can traverse the cosmic highway. Several other characters who are
arguably not as fast as him have in the past.
Scourge and the anti-version of Sonic’s friends traveled the
cosmic interstate on motorcycles
STH 24 pg 11
STH 25 pg 12
Sonic’s friends have followed him along it by plane.
STH 44 pg 10
Blaze has traveled it before.
SU 1 pg 7
Heck Scourge’s(anti-Sonic’s)destructix group were intent on
using it
SU 30 pg 5
Finally when this event was mentioned again in a semi-modern
comic, the sign was actually changed somewhat, no longer clearly saying light
years (in fact it seems to say miles, though it’s hard to make out).
STH 141 pg 23
Really this feat is arguable at best and incredible
vague/inconsistent at worst.
Resetting the world
So this is pretty much the last
feat that needs addressing and is probably the only one you could argue as
legitimate. Right before the start of the post genesis timeline there was a
crossover with Sonic and Megaman. During this crossover Eggman and Wily
attempted to use something called a Genesis wave to re-write reality, with them
being gods in the new universe. The strain of the device caused changes to both
characters multiverses, with Sonic and Megaman being forced to use chaos
control to undo said. The basic idea is that because Sonic used chaos control
in this way his power could be considered multiversal. Likewise that Super
sonic has reality warping powers given he could undo such damage.
Well to be frank changing reality of the universe isn’t a power super sonic has ever shown on his own at any point in the comic. In fact it was implied it was only because the super genesis wave was built around using chaos energy, that he was able to channel and control the energy of the wave at all.
STH 251 pg 23
So more or less Sonic and Megaman
hijacked the existing genesis wave for their own purpose, they can’t do this
shit normally.
The reason why Sonic multiverse collapsed on itself was also because Eggman interfered with his attempt to manipulate the genesis wave.
STH 256 pg 15
MM 50 pg 18
This also gets brought up A LOT but use of emeralds through machines
doesn’t always translate directly into how they can be use by living beings(I
mean keep in mind there IS a lot more tech involved in those things than just
the chaos energy power source). The first genesis wave Eggman used a single
chaos emerald and was capable of warping reality on a global scale. It was way
beyond what any other normal characters has shown to be capable of doing with single
emerald in the past.
STH 225 pg 22
STH 229 pg 15
With all 7 Eggman/Wily where able to change all reality with
no limits, which obviously can’t apply to Sonic even if he can warp reality as
Super Sonic. For example Sonic and Megaman failed to fix reality with chaos
control after over use of genesis portals caused it to break down during their second
crossover.
MM 52 pg 15
I also have to point out (and this is just me) but if Sonic
could reshape reality with no limits while in his super form virtually none of
the conflicts in the comic would make sense. Sonic could literally just reshape
reality to be perfect. This ability has never been used in combat either.
Overall it seems to be regulated to fixing damage to
space/time caused by others, or manipulating the energy of the Genesis waves
themselves through chaos control.
Character breakdowns
So there are a few characters regularly quoted as being “OP”
from Archie Sonic. Well like a lot of feats they tend to have abilities taken
out of context and in my opinion sometimes abused NLF.
To make this blog complete I think giving a mini-analyses of
said characters would be of great benefit.
Enerjak
SCE 86
Enerjak is not a single person or entity. The “Enerjak” was
originally a scientist who was given a chance to ascend from the mortal plane
and become a part of the chaos force. This power corrupted him however and
other entities that resided in the chaos force destroyed and spread his essence
throughout it.
Whenever an echidna of weak will, evil intent or warped ideals taps into high amounts of chaos energy, they can potentially draw the lingering spirit of Enerjak to them getting possessed. This possessed avatar generally has powers on par with a super form, but permanent. Likewise each incarnation has developed different uses of powers the form provides, generally based around chaos energy. There are a few different Enerjak’s in the comic, but the most important are general Dimitri, knuckles and an alternate version of knuckles.
Dimitri
Backstory
Long story short Dimitri was an ancient scientist from angle
island. He was supposed to use an object called a chaos siphon to drain power
form multiple chaos emeralds that kept it afloat, in order to return the island
safely to the ground. However instead he drained the power from the emeralds
and transferred it to himself.
STH 180 pg 4
STH 36 pg 18
He then had his powers taken from him and spent most of the
rest of the comic being a supporting character.
KTE 9 pg 21
Powers
Can mold the earth around him into large constructs like
cities KTE mini pg 18-20 http://i.imgur.com/5yi4rNR.jpg
, http://i.imgur.com/7OHsnIH.jpg
and http://i.imgur.com/ql7Ma6L.jpg
Can teleport himself or others over vast distances of space: KTE 8 http://i.imgur.com/OdSLGuX.jpg http://i.imgur.com/h17UgiD.jpg
Can atomically dismantle objects: KTE 9 pg 27 http://i.imgur.com/xaLw3sq.jpg and KTE 9 pg 9 http://i.imgur.com/dkg7C6K.jpg
Feats
Destroyed the top of a mountain: KTE mini 1 pg 12 http://i.imgur.com/dWWo9id.jpg
Got buried alive under his castle: STH 36 pg 21 http://i.imgur.com/56C6W6S.jpg and STH 25 pg 22 http://i.imgur.com/CQsDJEH.jpg
Knuckles
Background
Knuckles became Enerjak after being tricked into accessing
the master emeralds power after it had a mind hex placed on it by a character
named Finitivus. Said hex warped his beliefs and ideals, making him vulnerable
to being possessed.
STH 181 pg 23
Powers
Telekinesis: STHE 181 http://i.imgur.com/wm2WvkO.jpg http://i.imgur.com/jk16XO9.jpg And http://i.imgur.com/t5npNYg.jpg
Feats
Ripped off the shielding of new mobotropolis: SHT 181 pg 16 http://i.imgur.com/t7uTPfW.jpg
Tanked a chaos blast the size of a better part of a city from Shadow: STH 182 pg 7 http://i.imgur.com/yRTqOsQ.jpg
Caused an explosion along with sonic that took chunks out of angle island: STH 184 pg 2 http://i.imgur.com/BGpvwWn.jpg
Took a spin dash from sonic from the center of the earth: STH 184 pg 8 http://i.imgur.com/i4IS9DS.jpg
Dark knuckles
Background
Powers
Can remove a person’s life energy, referred to as a core: SU
25 pg 22 http://i.imgur.com/djAId4R.jpg
Can use said life energy to create fighters called: SU 26 pg 18 and 11 http://i.imgur.com/LmmxLBx.jpg and http://i.imgur.com/PoMe3TS.jpg
Feats
Supposedly defeated almost all of the mightiest heroes and
villains in Sonic: SU 25 pg 23 http://i.imgur.com/Km3Hpnk.jpg
Thoughts
Firstly Enerjak’s power is wanked WAAAAAY out of proportion.
Some people clearly saw his bio in some comics or the SCE and saw the section
that said “power restricted only by the imagination of the user” and used it as
a blatant NLF. Yes while it’s certainly true different Enerjak’s have created
different uses for their abilities based on their personality, but none of them
have actual feats that make them multiversal reality warpers or anything else
nearly as crazy. A lot of his vs
placement also comes from being scaled to mammoth mogul’s reality destroying
feat, which as I mentioned before was taken out of context.
…….That being said out of all the characters people talk about, he actually is quite powerful. We’re talking about a character who’s basically in super form permanently, who has feats of moving islands, destroying continents and fighting other super level characters. He also does have some hax depending on the incarnation, particularly soul, mind and molecular hax. The fact his transformation is permanent and well controlled, also gives him a leg up on most super form characters.
Of course that being said I should ALSO point out that
interestingly Enerjak is the only Archie villain who has never been defeated in
a direct confrontation.
When knuckles first fought the Dimitri version of Enerjak in his own miniseries, he actually goaded him into fighting him without any of his godlike powers. His father and comrades then sprung a trap on him that basically trapped him in an energy matrix inside a castle and flung him into space.
KTE mini 3 pg 21
KTE mini 3 pg 22
When Dimitri made his eventual return, his involvement in
the plot was actually a pre-ordained trap for him on the part of the character mammoth
mogul. He also wasn’t beaten head on, but was taken off guard by having his
power sapped from him by an object called the sword of acorns.
KTE 9 pg 21
When knuckles became Enerjak he was in complete control of
almost every fight he was in outside his final showdown with super sonic. Heck
he willingly held back against his friends and showed himself to be capable of
debilitating pretty much every hero in the sonic verse at once when he wanted.
STH 182 pg 11
The only reason why the fight against Super Sonic even stopped
was because the hex that warped knux’s mind and made him susceptible to
becoming Enerjak in the first place got broken.
STH 184 pg 15
It’s also worth mentioning he was actually fairly depleted
of power before his fight with Super sonic even started anyway.
STH 183 pg 16
and finally Dark Enerjak/knuckles? Well he willingly held
back and f@#ked around with his universes surviving heroes and Silver for the
sake of entertainment. He evens says this outright multiple times.
SU 27 pg 5
SU 27 pg 22
The only reason why he got defeated is because Silver took
him off guard by reflecting his own attacks back at him, which bypassed his
durability (because apparently his own attacks could affect him). Even then
it’s pretty obvious he could have killed Silver very easily if he had wanted
to, and WOULD HAVE if the character Jani-ca hadn’t taken him off guard to drain
his powers away.
SU 28 pg 17
SU 28 pg 18
So yeah even if you do want to scale people to this guy,
it’s kind of hard to given he’s beaten more often through wit and cunning
rather than brute force anyway.
Chaos knuckles
Background
SCE 16
So basically in the comics knuckles was genetically
engineered to have a higher connection to the chaos force and have higher usage
of chaos powers than most normal echidnas. After a life threatening incident
these powers manifested in a green transformation called chaos knuckles, which
was referred to as being a living chaos emerald.
STH 90 pg 23
Knux kept the transformation for a time, but eventually died
after being tricked into having his power absorbed by the character mammoth
mogul.
STH 118 pg 23
He then basically went to his version of the afterlife and
was given an opportunity to become part of the chaos force, which he refused
due to his friends back on the mortal plane being put in life threatening
danger at the time.
STH 121 pg 16
STHE 121 pg 17
STH 124 pg 25
STH 125 pg 16
After refusing to become part of the chaos force knuckles
returned to the mortal world, were he subsequently lost the form and most of
his special abilities like gliding(though he managed to get some of these back
at a later date).
STH 125 pg 23
His chaos powers were rendered dormant after this, though it
was shown in some potential future storylines that the ability for them to be
re-activate did exists under specific circumstances.
STH 140 pg 21
Powers
Can time travel STH 101 pg 22, 19 qnd 3 http://i.imgur.com/9ygHvYP.jpg ,http://i.imgur.com/pyfqjjr.jpg and http://i.imgur.com/bMQ8fNd.jpg
Teleportation: STH 97 pg 20 http://i.imgur.com/oezGb6t.jpg and STH 95 pg 20 http://i.imgur.com/Rbjd75f.jpg
Feats
Teleported people out of an alternate zone: STH 106 pg 24 http://i.imgur.com/2X9ZvfT.jpg
It was said his power increased exponentially over time: STH 94 pg 21 http://i.imgur.com/2NTgSbD.jpg
Fought on par with turbo tails(granted this was a fake and it didn’t want to fight him anyway) STH 97 pg 19 http://i.imgur.com/2f6s36n.jpg
Thoughts
Does Chaos knuckles live up to the hype…well sorta. There
are definitely statements that Knuckles powers in this form where on par with
and possibly even higher than Dimitri’s version of enerjak. This form is also permanent
outside of extreme circumstances as well, meaning it doesn’t have the
weaknesses of a super form.
Though honestly all things considered Knux doesn’t have any actual feats in this form that implie he’s a universe buster or anything of the like. It’s also been stated and shown many times in the comics and SCE that he had poor control over its power. Most of his powers also aren’t truly that unique in comparison to other characters like Shadow who regularly use abilities like chaos control.
I also think generally some statements people make about him being omnipotent in this form are blatant NLF.
People had shown concern on whether he could perform certain tasks in the past
STH 102 pg 24
Likewise for being “omnipotent” his story in the comics
still showed him to be fairly unaware of the machinations of the world around
him and he pretty much died from being placed into a trap by a villain and pushing the limits of his powers to far.
Heck it was even stated his powers where limited by the fact he had a mortal
body once.
STH 124 pg 25
Calling him a reality warper just because he could conjure
up some flowers from mid-air is also ridicules.
His only really hax ability in this form was the ability to time travel, which frankly he was totally inept at. One of his attempts at changing history for the better ended with the site of Angle Island being destroyed by an earthquake, another with him accidentally causing Angle Island to fall from the sky and be destroyed. Another nearly caused his race to near become robotic slaves of Eggman.
STH 101 pg 24
STH 102 pg 21
STH 102 pg 23
It’s even mentioned continued use of this power would mess
up reality, so I don’t think he would abuse that power anyway.
STH 101 pg 18
Ultra sonic
Background
SCE pg 125
Ultra Sonic is an alternate super form Sonic can access
typically by collecting an absurd amount of power rings. The amount needed
isn’t clear but according to the SCE it’s in the hundreds or thousands. Several
scans from the issues this form appears in also back up this fact.
FC 2011 pg 9
The transformation burns out VERY quickly however, with
Sonic only being able to hold it long enough to perform a few attacks. It also
leaves him drained if he pushes his abilities.
STH 66 pg 9
Powers
Creating portals between dimensions: FC 2011 pg 21 http://i.imgur.com/Fl7ROIZ.jpg
Sonic can also gain this form through the use of a super emerald. Said emerald can also alter his form farther based on the environment: STH 71 pg 15 http://i.imgur.com/LKfR3XJ.jpg
Some scans refer to ultra sonic’s abilities as a mastery over atomic particles.
Feats
Runs around the planet multiple times when he has the added
power of a super emerald: STH 71 pg 16 http://i.imgur.com/eNemixq.jpg
Thoughts
Personally I can’t help but think Ultra sonic is highly over
hyped. The SCE refers to the power of that form as “elemental” magic. One of
the CSE pages even compares it to the character Nuagus’s elemental powers.
CSE pg 124
Ultra Sonics abilities were probably based around the same principles
as Nuagus’s given that, and Naugus’s powers are mostly limited to manipulating
more contemporary elements like fire, water, air, and earth. For that matter Nuagus’s
powers seem to be limited to inorganic matter outside his own body, as he could
never use his crystallization magic on normal people outside specific
circumstances.
SCE pg 91
STH 225 pg 9
Ultra Sonic’s feats also aren’t that great or expansive. I
mean all he’s done is make some water and move some rocks and people act like
he’s a godamn fusion between avatar Aang and Bill cipher. I mean granted he can
run around a planet multiple times in a few seconds, but that’s not far beyond
the abilities of supersonic. It’s also very likely and implied the added powers
and properties of the super emerald are what allowed that specific feat to
happen.
For that matter Sonic fought in this form a grand number of 1 time (which he forgot about shortly after due to amnesia brought out from exhaustion when the form burnt out) and has said outright he’s not that familiar with it. The stipulations needed to take on the form and the actual time limit is also pretty severe. I mean hundreds or thousands of rings for barley a few attacks or one teleport? Sure there was the super emerald, but that had special properties, wasn’t really a real emerald, and wouldn’t exist to use as far back as the early 100s. There’s also the fact this form leaves Sonic incredibly drained of power and helpless after major use.
I kind of have to point out honestly that Super Sonic basically runs on magic rings, has many more feats to draw from, heals Sonic after use and frankly lasts much longer even under extreme circumstances. It also has more proven durability. If Sonic has 1000s of rings at his disposal why on gods earth should he use this fairly feats less, un optimized and obscure ultra sonic form, rather than just using his regular Super sonic form for much longer than usual?
Mammoth Mogul
Background
SCE pg 90
A giant mammoth that lived since prehistoric times. He came
into contact with a chaos emerald, which he used to give himself vast magical
abilities in an attempt to take over the world. After various failed attempts
at conquering he partook in a plan to sap the powers from the character Enerjak/dimitri,
essentially making himself a god. He got defeated and sealed within the master
emerald however.
Further appearances involved him sapping powers from Chaos knuckles and taking full control of the chaos force to become a multiversal threat. Though he was defeated again by Tails and imprisoned once again. The rest of his appearances in the comic are negligible, as he opted out of fighting foes directly when he realized how much of a pain Sonic and co could be.
He has a super form called master mogul.
Powers
Clairvoyance: KTE 7 pg 24 http://i.imgur.com/V7ljCa5.jpg
Can create telepathic marks on characters he can exploit later: STH 185 pg 9 http://i.imgur.com/HO4J2mq.jpg
Granting enhanced physical strength: STH 185 pg 11 http://en.sonicscanf.org/comics/sonic-the-hedgehog/185/#11
Feats
Survived a combined assault from the super forms of Sonic,
Knuckles and tails: STH 56 pg 16 http://i.imgur.com/Mf62lRg.jpg
Thoughts
Master mogul is probably the closest to being a legit OP
character, though honestly it was really only the specific circumstances of
taking control of the ENTIRE chaos force that he got that far. In most
circumstances in base his powers aren’t that far beyond the normal benchmark
for Sonic characters. Even the first time he assumed a master mogul form, well
he didn’t really go that over the top in terms of what was capable for super
level characters.
It’s also worth noting that until the ancient walkers were destroyed he actually cursed to make misjudgments and lose. Granted that’s sort of PIS, but it did happen.
STH 162 pg 11
The legitimate feats and what I think about them
So I probably noticed I’ve been quite easily deconstructing
tons of feats and characters from Archie right? Well does that mean everything
people say about it is bullshit? Well not exactly.
There actually are some legitimate over the top feats, and
I’ll can list them for you without much issue.
In STH isu 3 pg 2 Sonic runs so fast he can appear simultaneously on a monitoring screen and in the control room running that monitoring screen at the same time.
In a short strip in STH isu 5 pg 14 Sonic stars in a workout
video and claims/demonstrates he can run around the entire planet within 3 or 4
seconds.
In STH isu 11 pg 10 Sonic more or less races an evil version
of himself across an entire planet within a fairly short time span.
In SS Sonic blast pg 18 Sonic claims he can move twice the
speed of light. Granted nothing actually backs up this statement in the comic
itself, but her I’ll give it to him.
In issue 0 of the original mini series a comic strip claims
he can move 30% faster than the speed of light.
and finally this feat again. Sonic claims he’s faster than
light and beats up his own shadow in STH 7 pg 14.
So yeah Sonic does have some legitimately over the top feats
in Archie comics. HOWEVER there’s a glaring problem with all of these.
Particularly the era all the feats take place in and the context behind them.
Almost all of these feats are from either the original
mini-series or the FIRST 12 issues of the comic. A time where as I’ve explained
previously was full of 4th wall breaking, toon force and had a
completely different tone than the modern run of the comic. Many of these feats
also aren’t even from actual full length story’s either, but just one shot/page
strips in-between them.
The only exception here is Sonic blast, which is still technically on the fringe of that less serious beginning era and doesn’t actually have any feats to back it up outside a statement.
Considering this I have to ask WHY ON GODS EARTH should a nearly 24 year old comic book be held back so much from vs debating based on the contents of its first year!!? It’s not like the more modern books haven’t show how inconsistent these feats are either.
STH 175 pg 17
STH 175 pg 18
This is by FAAAAAAAAAR the most over the top feat Sonic has
ever displayed on his own in his base form in the modern run of the Comic. He
runs across a country length(probably around the size of the USA) in what was
probably a few seconds. In story Eggman who had been studying sonic for his
entire life(to the point where the suite he used in that fight was specifically
made to counter him) and even his calculations note that speed was way more
than he thought Sonic capable off. Likewise this was not something done
causally on Sonic’s end, this was literally him pushing himself to the absolute
limit of his abilities and pushing himself for further than he ever had before.
And it still isn’t even close to any of these feats he
pulled off causally in these early issues.
Implications of planet level power
So to end off all the deconstruction. There is implication
that some super forms in Archie have planet level strength. However these have
almost always been statements and not feats in themselves.
STH 196 pg 16
MM 52 pg 10
STH 184 pg 7
Common complaints and questions about Archie Sonic
Q: Archie sonic is
too different from other Sonic media to use in vs debates!
A: Eh kind of? Something people tend to forget is that between 1991 and 1999 there wasn’t actually a lot of story in sonic games (this didn’t start changing until Sonic adventure came out). Likewise the western media for Sonic in the early days was often based on the weird ass American made Sonic bible. Because Archie comics also took inspiration from a Sonic media inspired by said bible, the general tone and foundation of the world ended up being much more deviant than what Sega eventually came up with when it consolidated the Sonic brand more globally.
Of course that being said even then the comics did occasionally have tie ins with the games and the current author Ian Flynn did try to bring Archie more in line with the main games during his run in the pre-reboot timeline. Not to mention post genesis has been totally retooled to basically be the main game universe, except with some more important comic events having happened during that same timeline.
I’ll also note that certain elements of even Jap Sonic media have deviated from the norm to an extent. Sonic X having two parallel worlds, the OVA taking place on some floating piece of continent above a post apocalyptic earth. The general supporting cast of both those media.
Heck I’d note the currently relevant and highly endorsed cartoon Sonic boom isn’t like the main games at all, with almost no concepts being taken from there.
Archie isn’t much more deviant in comparison and frankly as long as the characters have the same general personality and powers, I’d don’t see why it should be ignored.
Q: Death battle never uses Archie in sonic fights?
A: This is actually a myth. Almost every character had some information or screens taken from Archie comics.
Sonic:
Being a freedom fighter was referenced with a comic scan https://youtu.be/3aq_dOLFmxA?t=173
There was HUGE emphasis placed on how absorbing so many rings made sonic an embodiment of chaos. Something only ever mentioned in Archie https://youtu.be/3aq_dOLFmxA?t=243
The versions of the Super emerald from Archie where referenced in the verdict https://youtu.be/3aq_dOLFmxA?t=535
Shadow:
Used scans from Archie when talking about him surviving a
fall form space https://youtu.be/KV47Il1o-Yo?t=197
He had an ENITRE SLIDE dedicated to the chaos force, a concept that only existed in pre-genesis Archie https://youtu.be/KV47Il1o-Yo?t=202
For the matter of everyone scaling him to Enerjak they had a comic scan of him fighting him https://youtu.be/KV47Il1o-Yo?t=215
Tails:
Backstory taken from comics: https://youtu.be/h1N5moEJx_o?t=291
Referenced he was the “chosen one” by the ancient walkers, comic exclusive characters: https://youtu.be/h1N5moEJx_o?t=308
Being taught how to fly with his tails by Sonic was taken from Archie: https://youtu.be/h1N5moEJx_o?t=343
Titan tails and tails saving the multiverse was referenced from Archie: https://youtu.be/h1N5moEJx_o?t=491
Eggman:
Scans from sonic issue 25 were used when describing metal
sonic https://youtu.be/qitt0AsCSYQ?t=158
Knuckles:
Scan from clan taken from SCE, when talking about the knuckles
tribe https://youtu.be/3581LCnibqs?t=400
Shadow 2:
Black Death, a comic only villain was mentioned as being
defeated by shadow as a feat https://youtu.be/W4czQ1Oa-Ns?t=484
So there almost every Sonic character had some amount of Archie
comics displayed in their analysis to a degree. Granted in more recent fights the
use of the comics has dropped off a bit. Personally I'm not exactly sure why, but I do have some thoughts regarding it.
When knuckles entered death battle the comic reboot HAD JUST HAPPENED and
Knuckles background/cast had been canablized the most. The fact characters like
Knux and Shadow didn’t remember the previous world also probably raised some questions.
Even scaling to the pre-reboot incarnation has some issues, given the characters were recreated to fit the new one down to a molecular/physical level and some concepts their powers were built around in the original don’t exist anymore(the chaos force was written out of the comic for example).
STH 256 pg 19
It’s honestly not that straightforward anymore, and there’s
really not enough feats inherently impressive enough to be worth going through
the trouble for.
Now to be fair I personally think more post-genesis stuff could be fairly likely to be included in future matches, but honestly given it’s still fairly early on, so it could be awhile before any substantial feats come from it.
Q: If DB included more Archie info X character would have won.
A: Shadow doesn’t actually have any feats of his own from Archie that are super impressive or that would have affected the conclusion of his battles. People saying that normally just scale Shadow to Mogul’s universe feat.
Knux’s alt forms could have technically helped him against DK but to be honest they were both pretty circumstantial. In order to become Enerjak Knux pretty much needs to be mind controlled into being a jackass or willingly become blatantly evil. Neither of those things would have ever potentially happened in his fight.
Likewise Knux gave up his chaos knuckles form and it hadn’t actually made an appearance in the comic since 2003, almost 12 years after Knux’s premiered in DB. Granted they were dormant but how they could re-emerge is a toss-up. Knux’s assumed the form again in a possible timeline, but we don’t get more than one panel of context behind that. He also absorbed plenty of chaos energy or was placed in situations where it would have been useful ALLLLLLLLLL the way up until the reboot, but never took it on again.
On another note the reboot made both of these forms legit not exist anymore in continuity, making arguments to consider them even more convoluted and possibly minute. The fact Knux could barely even control his chaos form anyway is just icing on the cake.
Q: If Archie isn’t so OP how come nobody has noticed for so long?
A: As far as I can tell a few years ago some people took several feats from Archie wildly out of context when compiling them in a verse thread. People bought it and then the reputation of the supposed OP Archie Sonic verse grew out of control. Most people these days DON’T actually read the comic, or question any of the feats. They just parrot what they’ve heard others say and take things out of context. Likewise because so many people consider Archie to be OP based on its reputation alone, discussions about it tends to get shut down, locked or ignored for being pointless before actual progress can be made regarding talking about it.
Final thoughts
Man this blog got away from me. I think it’s probably one of
the longest I’ve ever written.
Anyway people who get sick Archie Sonic bashing or people
taking scans out of context, feel free to use this as a reference.
To end this blog I’m going to give a quote by who I think is quite literally the only person I’ve seen on any vs debate thread who has caught onto all this before me and outright stated his opinion to those around him. It’s not entirely right, but it’s the closest to a correct deduction I’ve seen about Archie Sonic.
“I feel like everyone who talks of Sonic like he's a cosmic threat has never actually read his comics. While I haven't read all of them, at this point, I can finally say that I've read MOST of them. I've read from all different time periods too.
Sonic gets blown way too far out of proportions on CV. Most of the feats people talk about are from the back pages of his books, and are non-story related. They are short extra pages that were added to his early books, kind of like a weekly comic strip in a newspaper. These usually involved Sonic breaking the fourth wall, and talking directly to the reader. While this doesn't technically make it non-canon, it's hard for me to put very much stock into these feats which were never replicated in the stories that were happening. These feats include the ones like him shadow boxing and him outrunning the light after flipping on a light switch.
Some of his other in-story feats have been blown way out of proportions as well. The feat of him stopping a planet consuming black hole does not make him as powerful as a black hole. What Sonic actually did, was stop the gears that were creating the black hole. While it's still an epic feat, it's nothing near the level of a cosmic powerhouse that people make Sonic out to be because of it.
His other feat that gets blown way out of proportion is the
zone busting feat that people claim is him and Knuckles destroying a universe.
A "zone" is not a universe in the Sonic Universe. A Zone is roughly
city sized. Zones are the levels from the video games, like Casino Night Zone,
Emerald Hills Zone, etc.. This hidden zone that they found was never really
given a size, but from the art of the issues where him and Knuckles were racing
to be the first to collect 50 rings, it appeared maybe city sized. So when
Super Sonic and Hyper Knuckles collided going all out, both of their powers
combined were equal to an arguably city sized power level. One half a city is
pretty huge for Sonic, but it's no where near the ridiculous levels people talk
of about him being Universal.
On top of all of this, all of these feats have been retconned twice now. The current Archie Sonic is not even the same Sonic from 20, 10, or even 5 years back, and the majority of the feats we see from him on CV are well over 10 years old, if not closer to 20 at this point . After the events of Worlds Collide, all of the characters memories and even their molecular makeup a were altered to fit the new reality that was created. This was confirmed by Eggman. All of the past feats technically still happened, but they happened by Sonic who had a completely different body down to the molecular level. We can't really base a full opinion off of these feats. Their notable, but not really anything beyond that.
People on CV want to believe that comic feats are somehow
better then other mediums. After reading well over 100 issues of Sonic now, I
can honestly say that his abilities as a combatant are no different then what
he is capable of in the video games. Archie has been doing an excellent job of
making Sonic very similar to the games, and has been tying in much closer to
the games then ever before. Even the old stuff still had him very similar to
the games, with the occasional moment where he would run faster then we've ever
seen him before.
Even if you want to believe Sonic is capable of cosmic level power, there is still no denying that Sonic is challenged by mid tier characters on a very consistent basis. There are characters that are not even anywhere close to breaking the sound barrier that are able to match Sonic in combat. Characters like Knuckles, Eggman, Metal Sonic, and Mega Man have all given Sonic awesome fights. He was beaten by only half of the Deadly Six, and they are mid tier at best.
My favorite fight of his was against Mega Man, and it was a complete stalemate, with both of them admitting that they didn't think they could beat the other. When the fight took place in Sonic's
universe, Sonic had an advantage with his environment by using loops, and springs to constantly change speeds and direction making himself an impossible target. When the fight was moved to Mega Man's universe, Mega Man had the clear advantage when he had access to Rush and his own home field advantage.
I don't think anyone here will claim Mega Man is cosmic level.
Sonic has faced some Cosmic beings, like Ifrit. When he faced Ifrit though, he had the help of both Shadow and Silver, two characters on par with Sonic's power levels. When Sonic tried to face Ifrit later on his own, he couldn't do anything but be a slight distraction. He needed Silver to come back him up, and even then, they couldn't defeat Ifrit on their own, Silver had to open a portal to BFR Ifrit.
Sonic has faced off against God Sigma, who was not quite God
level yet. He was growing towards this level, but was stopped before he made
it. This was very impressive of a victory, but Sonic had the entire Capcom
universe backing him up, witch characters from dang near every game imaginable
like Street Fighter, Ghosts and Goblins, Breath of Fire, Shadow of the
Colossus, Mega Man, etc.... Even with all of this backup Sigma was still not
going down, so it took Sonic and Mega Man both accessing Super Forms from the
chaos emeralds, and it took Mega Man's launching Sonic with a spin dash blast
tails invented on his buster, to take Sigma down. It was the power of both
Sonic and Mega Man, not Sonic alone. Sonic was unable to hurt Sigma on his own,
and Mega Man was proving to actually have the more powerful super form at the
time. It's very impressive, but still not the levels of power people on CV talk
about. I could easily take scans from that scene, and swing it to make it seem
like way more then it actually is, like what has happened so much with Sonic in
the past, but that just hurts the image of sonic more then it helps him.
So after that long explanation, I'm not sure he could beat the first round. Sonic's best attack ever shown has been the result of more then his own power, and it's never been beyond about half of a city. Just savage hulk could likely survive this attack, although he would be feeling it hard. One of the more powerful versions of Hulk is just not going down in my opinion.
Sonic is an awesome mid tier character. We just can't forget that he IS mid tier, and it doesn't matter whether it's the game or comic, unless of course you just accept blatant wanking of comic feats simply because they are from a comic.”
On another note don’t even try to start on Sigma in the
post-reboot crossover, because I’m totally willing and able to rebuttal it.
Edit: So I kind of feel the need to add this. Sonic is my favorite game character and I did not in fact write this to bash him. I wrote it because I wanted to encourage people I knew to actually talk about Archie in vs debates rather than immediately shutting it down the second it got brought up. I've read the comic for years and honestly I've greatly enjoyed it.
Like seriously people I can't count the number of times I've seen others I don't even know attack me like I'm a asshole or like I'm destroying their way of life just because of this blog. It's also a bit annoying that so many people I see "debunk" my blog by saying it says things it legitimately does not say.I also make a point to say some feats are more defend-able and clarified some thoughts in a second analysis blog of Sonic overall.
Like really. Calm down a bit.
Edit: So I kind of feel the need to add this. Sonic is my favorite game character and I did not in fact write this to bash him. I wrote it because I wanted to encourage people I knew to actually talk about Archie in vs debates rather than immediately shutting it down the second it got brought up. I've read the comic for years and honestly I've greatly enjoyed it.
Like seriously people I can't count the number of times I've seen others I don't even know attack me like I'm a asshole or like I'm destroying their way of life just because of this blog. It's also a bit annoying that so many people I see "debunk" my blog by saying it says things it legitimately does not say.I also make a point to say some feats are more defend-able and clarified some thoughts in a second analysis blog of Sonic overall.
Like really. Calm down a bit.
