Another shining example of why NOT to use MSpaint for picture resizing.

very interested in the rest of the issue. i might just have to start putting money back into the sonic comics again

Well, I've read it. So now it's time......

FOR THE FIRST OFFICIAL/UNOFFICIAL REVIEW OF SONIC UNIVERSE #1!!!!!!

"Living Weapons"

Written by: Ian Flynn

Art by: Tracy Yardley!

Cover by: Patrick "Spaz" Spaziante

NOTE: I'm not doing the nicknames anymore, as this isn't a silly Sonic book like Sonic X. Although it is still fairly light-hearted.

STORY: After the events from Sonic X #40 (Not to mention the events from Sonic Rush Adventure for the Nintendo DS, go buy it now!), Shadow and Metal end up in the middle of the ocean on yet, another world. Shadow tries to reason with Metal Sonic, but to no avail. Metal kicks him into the ocean, then goes to look for his master, Eggman.

Fortunately for Shadow, not only does he know how to swim, but there is a boat ready to pick him up with Blaze and Marine on board. Blaze mentions how Shadow looks a bit like Sonic. Shadow goes into his recent past, while Blaze mentions her recent past with Sonic including both the dream, and the events from Sonic Rush Adventure (on the Nintendo DS. In stores now!!) Marine interrupts with her own interpretation of how things went. (Which is done as a child's drawing with the colors off.) She tells a few fibs, including her building the boat and saving the day. One truth is that Sonic gave Blaze a Chaos Emerald so she could find the other Sol Emeralds. (An important plot point.)

They head home to the island only to find it ablaze! Metal has been thrashing the town looking for their planets Dr. Eggman. Before Shadow can stop her, Blaze springs into action and attacks Metal. Because of his speed, Metal gets the upper hand easily. Shadow saves Blaze and joins in the fight, but is thrown aside as well. In fact the only one to last long is Marine who pounces on the back of Metal's head. Kicking, punching, and holding on for dear life while he's spinning around. "WHEEEEE! I mean, Cut that out!" Says Marine.

However, Marine has created a new problem as the others keep having to hold their attacks due to almost hitting Marine. Finally Metal throws her off. While Blaze rushes over to make sure Marine's not hurt, Shadow once more tries to reason with Metal. But still, to no avail. Blaze sets him on fire, Shadow knocks him into the air, and Marine blasts him to bits with the ships cannons.

Shadow's ticked off at Marine for blowing up Metal as he needed his dimensional Engine to get back home. Shadow then asks for a boat, but Marine finally explains that Tails built it and she just kinda oversaw development. We then get two great awkward panels of Marine backing off, smiling as Shadow looks all ticked. It's hilarious. Blaze gives Shadow the Chaos Emerald that Sonic gave her. Saying that she found a few Sol Emeralds, so she no longer needs it. Shadow thanks her and uses Chaos Control to finally go home to....

G.U.N. Headquarters, where Hope Kintobor is waiting along with the GUN Commander. The mission was to send Shadow to the Special Zone to retrieve a Chaos Emerald. Of course, it didn't quite work that way, but the mission was accomplished nontheless. The Commander tells him his new mission starts tonight. END

P.S. Also, a new Off Panel is shown at the end of the book. It's actually funny this time!

THE GOOD: What a perfect first issue to start off! Tons of action, and a fair amount of humor. I love the way Shadow was with Marine. She really got on his nerves. He throws a towel in her face, and calls her "Marie" and "Mary". Their final page together is classic.

Speaking of Marine, she was actually funny and not near as annoying as she was in SRA. The part where she was telling her side of things with the child's art and it being off color was a neat touch. Ian did a great job with her. Much to his chagrin, I'd like to see more of her in the book.

Finally, it was great having Blaze in a full issue, and showing off her powers and skills. She is very slightly different from her Sega counterpart. She's a bit more caring of Marie than she was in SRA. Where she called her a "nuisance" and didn't want ot be around her. Here, she hanging out with her, defending some of her action as just being a kid, and worrying for her safety when she gets thrown off Metal. Also, to be blunt, Tracy drew her with a bust. Something she never had in the games and is even mentioned in one of her Sega profiles about how her being flat was affecting her self-esteem a bit. (Or something to that effect.) Still, I don't think Blaze will be complaining anytime soon.

THE BAD: I sometimes wonder about Shadows logic. When Blaze says Sonic is Shadow's friend, he says ".............I guess." Really? what does a person have to do to be Shadows friend? Sonic only risked his neck to let you say your final goodbyes to Maria (Albeit through virtual Reality). If that didn't make him his friend, I don't know what would.

Also, why is he trying so hard to reason with a heartless machine? Metal is not like one of Eggman's more wackier robots who are sentient. He's much more of a traditional robot who's though processors are based on cold logic. He should've known he wasn't going to get anywhere with him. But I guess he needed to at least try in order to get home.

OVERALL 9.5/10 - A fantastic first issue to start the series on. Go buy it now!! Along with Sonic Rush Adventure. Available on Amazon.com fo- *SHOT*

So nothing about Marine's vaguely defined powers here, huh? That's somewhat disappointing. I guess blowing Metal to smitherines with a cannon works just as well.

Well ... not really.

I sometimes wonder about Shadows logic.

Shadow doesn't seem to understand or value the concept of friendship like the other characters in the comic. He's the one who's always into " serious business " whether its his business or whatever business he has to do for GUN. That's his life now that he's found his purpose whereas before his life was finding his purpose. He's like the guy at the office who throws himself into his work and excels because he has a nonexistent social life. As far as " friends " go he seems to value people depending on how helpful they've been to his personal mission.

It does make me wonder what his relationship with Maria was really like if he doesn't really grasp the concept of friendship. I'm starting to imagine that she had a more " motherly " role in his life and assisted Dr. Gerald in raising / educating him. Maybe he wasn't aware of just how much the Doctor and Maria meant to him until they were murdered. Then everything clicked and he went into VENGEANCE mode for a few years. After that they told him " you are not a gun ... actually you are but you're not " and he was like " ... 'kay ".

Also, why is he trying so hard to reason with a heartless machine?

Metal Sonic used to be sentient before Eggman decided to make him into a portable intercom. With each new model he seems to be stripping away whatever personality Metal used to have to the point that he should might as well design a controller to control his movements as well. I have to admit I don't like how " robot slave " Metal's become in recent years since he used to be much more formidable.

Whioa whoa whoa.

I really missed out on alot here. When did Metal lose his sentience? The last times I remember metal clearly, he kept gaining more and more freedom. I know that in that 4 hedegehog fight in the 190's, he was transmitting Eggman's speech, but I didn't think it had anything to do with the loss of sentience. Please catch me up.

I thought the last time we had a sentient Metal Sonic in the comic was around #87, and he melted.

At least, I don't remember the Good/Bad/Unknown one displaying that level of personality. I don't think the "troopers" version were anything more than machines, but I'm not really familiar with that story.

Metal controlled via Eggman is pretty much how he appeared in his last game role.

Anyway, as I've said elsewhere, Marine makes a surprisingly good foil for Shadow.

So nothing about Marine's vaguely defined powers here, huh?

Well, they're so vaguely defined by Sega it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try to specify what she can do.

On the other hand, she... sorta... touches upon it?

I'm not entirely sure what happened but I'm guessing that it has something to do with keeping him in lines with his current representation in the games. Metal Sonic / Neo Metal Sonic was scrapped in Sonic Heroes. The next time he appeared (Sonic Rivals / Sonic Rivals 2) he was a portable intercom. I'm just guessing, but maybe after that whole Metal Madness incident Eggman didn't want to chance Metal Sonic rising against him again so he rewrote his programming in the next incarnation to be more like a regular robot.

None of this happened in the comics of course but I don't even remember the last time Metal Sonic appeared in the comics with emotion. There was that story in the 80s but since then he's basically been a Kill Bot. The way Eggman churns out these Metals it might not be worth it to even give one Metal a personality for the time being. This incarnation of Metal Sonic is the second one he's built in 10 issues and there's still room for him to build one more in time for 200.

Edit: Thanks for the scan. At least they didn't completely ignore it and pretend it didn't happen.

SU #1 is one of the best sonic comics Ive read in a while, Great 1st issue...and Shadow's Facial expression at the bottom of page 27 is just Priceless!

That.... isn't as hilarious as people said. It's pretty bad. XD

That.... isn't as hilarious as people said. It's pretty bad. XD

you gotta see the whole thing. Shadows face alone isn't that funny true, but the way marine reacts to it is what makes it priceless!

Im grabbing this. and yeah it was 89 that I remembered Metal being sentient as well. That makes sense though, Eggman's been hit pretty hard many times over. Churning out Metals with personalities would not be in his best interest. Oh well, 200 here we come.

I was actually hoping they'd go the extra mile with Marine's "thought process" and have them done in a pseudo-crayon style for maximum effect.

It was an excellent first issue! I didn't know I had the issue until thirty minutes ago, looking through our stack of mail. XD

And here's the Off-Panel for those who don't have the issue yet, but would like to see it~

It seems working on Sonic X has slightly effected how Steven Butler pencils the characters, and I love the new look personally.
Also, who's Paul Kaminski? I like the psuedo official art style coloring they got going on.

And how coincidental that we see Knux throwing a tantrum about not getting to warm over decade-old ideas from a dead comic, now that we have the previews for issue five...

I love Knuckles's line in the last panel.

This was the only ish I was able to get his time. A fun read, though lood lord, what is with the colorists! They can't ever get the new Metal Sonic right.

ALso, to whoever asked, yes I do post at the All Spark

I thought I recognized you. I post as Sailor Unicron over there.

Huh... I thought that Knuckles in the last panel looked kind of familiar!

Heh, heh good find, Psx!

love the off panel. so true too. poor knux. has it really been that long since his comic ended already? wow...

can't wait for SU #9!

Also, why is he trying so hard to reason with a heartless machine?

Maybe cause he feels he was one. Sorta. Shadow: "Metal..... We are both living weapons..Yarda yarda ya"

I liked Shadow's grumpy look towards the end.

HOWEVER;

It wasn't half as scary as the way Blaze looked in the flashback of her first meeting with Sonic (I think I missed it; I only started collecting since about 170. Was this one of the game ads I've been seeing on the back of half the comics. Sorry n00b question).

HOWEVER;

Blaze didn't look half as scary as Rosie when she was first introduced. She had Saliva. Saliva.

HOWEVER;

Mecha Sonic lookes scarier. Somehow. In a terminator-like way.

Yeah, Blaze's first appearance was a tie in for Sonic Rush; however, unlike the newer ones, it's actually part of comic canon.

*Hopes this doesn't count as thread necromancy*

So I bought the issue yesterday because I was sick of waiting and then received it in the mail today. Ugh. Extra sale for Archie I guess.

Anyway, a very good opener for the series. Blaze talking with Shadow is almost unheard of and it was nice to see them getting along. Marine was a hoot, and it was interesting to see her becoming an obstacle in beating Metal Sonic.

I did think that the exposition recalling the events from the Sonic Rush and Sonic Rush Adventure adaptions could have been lessened a bit though. I mean, exposition should never really take three or more pages.

Hope's character model seemed a bit off, but otherwise Tracy does a fantastic job. I especially liked all the poses, stances and facial expressions during the fight.

Someone on this comic sure has a love for ending stories at sundown. It's almost expected at this point.