Comic Previews: Sonic the Hedgehog #293, Sonic Universe #96, Sonic Mega Drive: Overdrive #1 and More!

March is looking to bring a whole plethora of new Sonic content!

The solicitations for March have been revealed, and there’s a slew of stuff to get through! First up, in Sonic the Hedgehog #293, Sonic is with Honey on the set of a strange parody of Sonic’s antics, ‘Sonic Man Heroes’.

But when Eggman shows up quite peeved about what they’re doing there, things are bound to become action-packed, and with realism to boot! The story is currently with an unknown title, weirdly.

Sonic and Honey are on the set of the latest, greatest(?) super hero show—Sonic Man Heroes! But when Dr. Eggman crashes the scene, ranting and raving about creative differences, things get very interesting! Featuring cover art by comics extraordinaire Tracy Yardley and a “Arcade” variant by Sonic comics legend Patrick Spaziante!
Script: Ian Flynn
Art: Tracy Yardley, Terry Austin, Gabriel Cassata and John Workman
Cover: Tracy Yardley and Matt Herms
Variant Cover: Patrick Spaziante
On Sale Date: 3/22
32-page, full color comic
$3.99 U.S.

Meanwhile, things are getting out of this world for Bunnie in Sonic Universe #96. A new sinister evil is wreaking havoc in the Sol Dimension and, for some mysterious reason, Bunnie is summoned there to help! See Bunnie team up with Blaze for the first time, and perhaps find out why Bunnie of all people is important to the Sol Dimension, in “Freedom Fighters”: part 2.

BUNNIE gets ready for a NEW VENTURE in “Freedom Fighters” Part Two: Where there’s smoke, there’s fire—and in this case, evil too! Bunnie is summoned to Blaze’s world in a desperate attempt to repel the invasion of a new, sinister force! Featuring cover art by jammin’ Jamal Peppers and a “Freedom Fighters Forever” variant by the excellent Evan Stanley!
Script: Ian Flynn
Art: Adam Bryce Thomas, Jim Amash, Matt Herms and Jack Morelli
Cover: Jamal Peppers, Jim Amash & Matt Herms
Variant Cover: Evan Stanley
On Sale Date: 3/8
32-page, full color comic
$3.99 U.S.

We reach the conclusion of one of the most anticipated Archie Sonic stories of all time with Sonic Mega Drive: Overdrive! Eggman has managed to get all the Ancient Gears after the events of the last issue, which mean he’s poised to charge up his super-weapon, the Mega Drive! Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles will have to work together to collect the seven Chaos Emeralds and finally put an end to the latest threat once and for all, and they don’t have much time to do it! This is “Overdrive”.

SONIC kicks things into “OVERDRIVE”!: The Classic Sonic sensation comes to its startling finale! Dr. Eggman has managed to gather up all seven of the Ancient Gears which will super-charge his latest creation—the Mega Drive! Now Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy Rose are in a race against time to gather the Chaos Emeralds and stop Dr. Eggman before the vicious device launches! Featuring cover art by rising star Tyson Hesse!
Script: Ian Flynn
Art: Tyson Hesse, Matt Herms & Jack Morelli
Cover: Tyson Hesse
On Sale Date: 3/1
48-page, full color comic
$4.99 U.S.

The reprint of Worlds Unite is concluding this month as well, with Sonic and Mega Man: Worlds Unite Volume 3 collecting the last four main issues and two side-book issues of the biggest crossover Sonic’s seen to date! Sigma has managed to power himself up even more, so the Heroes will need to find more allies if they want to save the day. With Sigma planting the seeds of destruction in other worlds, Sonic, Mega Man, X and co find more franchise heroes to join their cause, culminating in a huge last stand to stop Sigma’s scheme once and for all! This is the Sonic and Mega Man World Unite Graphic Novel “Allied Forces”.

Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man team up with heroes from across the SEGA and Capcom universes to battle the monstrous Sigma and stop his relentless assault across multiple universes! Featuring the worlds of STREET FIGHTER, GOLDEN AXE, MONSTER HUNTER, NIGHTS INTO DREAMS and many more! It’s the dream team mash-up of iconic gaming heroes and villains you always hoped for in this frantic, bombastic finale!
Script: Ian Flynn, Aleah Baker
Art: Tyson Hesse, Jamal Peppers, Diana Skelly, Jim Amash, Terry Austin, Matt Herms, Elaina Unger, Jack Morelli, Rachel Deering and more
Cover: T. Rex and Matt Herms
978-1-68255-892-4
$14.99/$16.99CAN
TR
pp, Full Color
Direct Market On-Sale Date: 3/8

And finally, we now have an idea of what Sonic’s Free Comic Book Day contribution will be! It looks to be a reprint of Sonic the Hedgehog #288, the first issue of the current “Genesis of a Hero” throwback arc. If you missed out on this two months ago, Free Comic Book Day will give you the chance to see Sonic’s confrontation with Dr Eggman once again, and this time at no cost!

SONIC is BACK for FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! Turn back time and witness the “Genesis of a Hero” as Sonic enters his first climactic show-down with the evil Dr. Eggman! When the mad doctor takes over South Island, there’s only one hedgehog who can set things right! Jump right into the excitement, action and fun in this retro romp celebrating 25 years of Sonic!
Script: Ian Flynn
Art: Tracy Yardley, Terry Austin, John Workman, Gabriel Cassata
Cover: Jamal Peppers, Gary Martin and Matt Herms

We’ll have more on all of these issues and more closer to the time of their release. Note it down on the new calendar while you tuck into turkey!

Source: Comic Vine

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27 Comments

  1. They made Honey the Cat an actual character in the comics? *groan*
    That’s incredibly dumb. She was never meant to be an actual Sonic character; she was just an anthropomorphized version of Honey from Fighting Vipers meant to appear only in Sonic the Fighters.

    Somebody really needs to rein Ian Flynn back. He’s turning the comic into cringy fanfiction. This is as bad as when he introduced Segata Sanshiro into the comic, or canonized Wood Zone, or turned the early character design for Hornet Man into an actual character in the Mega Man comic.

    1. I don’t really consider bringing more game elements into the comics to be “cringy fanfiction.” Like, at all.

      Now, the vast majority of the comic’s run BEFORE Ian took over…THAT is cringy fanfiction.

      1. Bringing scrapped game elements like Wood Zone and non-Sonic characters like Segata into canon is the very definition of cringy fanfiction. It’s the kind of BS that gave us all the ridiculous Nazo fanfics. It’s extremely unprofessional and reeks of “fanboy trying to shoehorn stuff they think would be neat into canon” nonsense. Which is to be expected from a promoted fanboy like Flynn, I suppose. What would you say if he introduced Madonna and made him Sonic’s girlfriend, thinking using scrapped Sonic 1 concepts makes him oh so clever?

        And the comic was trash before he took over. But at least it wasn’t fanfiction-ish trash.

        1. So the games and characters already have this feel talking animals that fight an egg shaped bad guy bats with boobs and they already did the human girlfriend thing combines some of the games stories sound like Cringy fanfiction-ish trash to me

        2. fanfic would be getting sonic to date every girl of the city beacuse **reasons**,
          or 25 Y L , that was basically fanfic
          what Flynn is doing is world building, with homages to Sonic/SEGA history.

          And let’s not forget that SEGA approves what gets printed in the comic, and now that they are paying attention closely, calling it a fanfic gives ground to call Colours or Generations fanfics too, since they were approved by SEGA no less.
          I’m not arguing about what is canon or something like that, just saying that the comic is an official product/merchandise and is leagues (and leagues) better than your usual fanfiction.

        3. If the comics were exclusively based on the main series with no inspiration from old elements or spinoffs whatsoever, each issue would be the same thing over and over. Sonic runs somewhere. Sonic finds Robotnik. Sonic fights Robotnik. Sonic wins.

          Ian Flynn’s new interpretations of old ideas are what set it apart from the main series and elevate it from just being another video game adaption.

        4. Holy shit, are the mods asleep again? Who let you back in?

          MODS! Come quick! Ken Penders started another account and telling filthy lies to dissuade people from reading the comic….Aaagain.

    2. What exactly are you looking for in a comic adaptation of a video game if not elements of the video games?

      I would argue that Honey is less of a cringy fanfiction character than Sally or Bunnie or any of Ken Pender’s shit characters. Yeah, she’s obscure and not really canon to the games, but it’s not like she’s a big mover or shaker in the comics either. She’s a side character that rarely shows up for a bit of referential fan service to geeks in the know.

      If you don’t like the writing or characterization that’s fine, you can totally argue that these suck for a lot of valid reasons I’m sure. But if your critique of a video game comic is that they are putting video game things in the comic and that’s bad, I just don’t think you get it.

      1. Im comment on this because yours seem the less argumentive but I kinda get what he means though I don’t think it was properly said. For what I think which I understand and agree to some degree is that the comic with the new universe is relying too heavily on the game related stories(cancel stories,scrap characters, Easter eggs,etc) when in fact that is not what the comic interesting only. Yes it has to adapt video games but people forget this was originally a comic base on a TV SHOW!. Re read that again lol, yes a TV show base on a video game that had a total separate universe that was expanded upon. Despite how people may feel which is understanding about the previous universe that existed these characters had life beyond what they where doing just in games alone and that is what the comic is missing they not diving hard enough into what is this new world all about? Just doing game adaptions ant enough cause you have so much characters there its hard to believe that everything from the games happened beat by beat like the games. I digress but basically I can understand the discontent with the way the comic is going because its already been three years (maybe more) since the universe started and for the most of it its basically been game adapted stories and I may like the idea of them adapting certain games but its wearing thin it just look like they stalling or something

    3. I actually really like what Flynn’s doing. These are characters and locations that have little to no personality and he’s putting his own spin on them.

      Now, the part of the comics that’s all about the romance? THAT’S cringy fanfiction. (Except Buntoine. They’re the best couple.)

    1. It just means the cover needs to be checked over by SEGA of America to give the okay on it being final. It’s rare that a cover doesn’t get SEGA’s approval though.

      1. It took a bit to notice but the background kept making me scratch my head why it look so familiar. And this issue comes out in march the same time mania cones out i think? Yea obvious tie in that is surprising no one is mentioning lol

  2. I still find it hilarious that they’re giving Sonic Man some attention – freaking Sonic Man from Sonic ’06!

  3. Word’s cant describe how fitting and happy I am that Knuckles Man is played by a black guy. Knuckles is the people’s hero!

  4. Glad to see Blaze again in the comics, hopefully they will integrate her more often into the main stories rather than just appearing every now and then.

    Also more Honey is cool.

  5. What I figure could happen in this issue (or I would at least enjoy seeing):
    — The Freedom Fighters appear in this issue as well and complain about why they aren’t in the show despite being around since the beginning
    — Cream being happy about being in a main role on Sonic’s team in the show and/or giving Sally an uncharacteristic yet amusing smug or upset look that causes her to get nervous
    — The show going full Ember Island Players and replaying Sonic’s adventures with a corny filter where the stories make even less sense
    — The show messing up the source material too much like making Shadow a whiny and goth villain
    — Eggman going mad and outright shooting down on Studiopolis with lasers and badniks all while ranting on a speaker about how inaccurate and poorly-written the show is (bonus if Sonic-Man Heroes’ equivalent to Eggman is a very poor and incompentent villain—NO EVEN WORSE THAN SONIC BOOM EGGMAN I KNEW YOU WERE ALL THINKING OF THAT RIGHT NOW)

    Just saying. There’s a lot of potential to be had here.

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