“Yesterday’s” Comic> Sonic Universe #3

“First ceiling cat, now this.”

Sonic Universe #3

Archie Comics Publications (June 2009)

“The Shadow Saga” part 3: “Old Soldiers”

WRITER: Ian Flynn

PENCILER: Tracy Yardley

INKER: Jim Amash

COLORIST: Jason Jensen

LETTERER: Teresa Davidson

EDITOR: Mike Pellerito

EDITOR IN CHIEF: Victor Gorelick

From the original review: G.U.N. Chief Abraham sends Shadow out to recruit E-102, aka Gamma, one of Robotnik’s old robots (from Sonic Adventure 1) to join up with their group to oppose Robotnik. However, the not-so-good doctor has sent out his new robot, Omega, to destroy the robot with a soul. During the battle Omega succeeds in destroying Gamma, but not before Gamma uploads a copy of himself in to Omega. Now the robot must deal with the conflicting desire to destroy and his newfound conscience. Shadow offers him Gamma’s place in G.U.N. and the robot accepts. Later, the new “Team Dark” are given orders for their next mission: to go to a special zone to obtain a Chaos Emerald.

What they got right: The further exploring of Shadow’s desire to “reform” all living weapons carries over from issue 1, and I can’t help but feel this is what the last issue should have been. Sonic Adventure 1 had been adapted into the comics, so I know the whole story about how Amy Rose helped bring Gamma/E-102 over to the good guys. Therefore, it was sad to see him destroyed, even though he does live on in his upload into Omega. It’s a good plot.

What they got wrong: In the original view I had no complaints. The story itself is fine. That was in April of 2009. Now I have a Sonic Fandom wiki to tell me that the events of how Omega reformed and Gamma’s destruction are different here than in the games, which may bother fans of the games over the comic.

What I think overall: This is turning out to be an interesting title, and a good way to give the main series some breathing room with allowing the supporting cast to shine. At the time of the original view I followed that up with being okay with a Team Dark series (tying to Sonic Heroes) along with bringing back Knuckles’ title. Today I’m not sure given the chaos that would follow behind the scenes. You can see Archie struggle with their continuity as Sega starts pushing more story and going further from either of the DIC cartoons or the Archie continuity. It made for good reading at the time but years later it runs into a few issues, being trapped in-between continuities.