Sonic & Knuckles: The Archie Adaptation

[@BovineDesigns]

I remember I had two friends growing up who would tell me about the Archie Sonic comics. I was so confused I genuinely thought they meant Archie the character. But then I learned it was the same company that made both Archie and Sonic comics. It's so confusing, imagine if DC was just called Superman Comics.

[@SilverSaiyanAce]

Yeah I used to think something similar but I thought that Archie was only the manufacturer and I had never heard of Archie as a specific comic/ as it's own comic

[@Excellsion]

I mean, DC originally stood for Detective Comics, and Batman debuted and runs in the series "Detective Comics" Iirc Namor debuted in "Marvel Comics" although at the time I believe the company was still called Timely Comics.

[@JamesChessman]

Dude those two girls from Archie are so hot, I want to bring them to the local soda shop. But if Sonic’s universe mixes with Archie then who is hotter, Archie’s girls or Sonic’s girls?

[@sho829]

Nowadays DC is just Batman Comics

[@SpiderandMosquito]

I've often joked that DC wants to rename the company *Batman Comics (plus some other assholes nobody cares about)*

[@alexmcneill6445]

Game-Lore Wise: It's worth noting that although Knuckles is the lone Echidna and Guardian of Angel Island, he isn't the ONLY sentient being on the floating continent. The Japanese manual for Sonic 3 details how Knuckles befriended the animals on the island (you know, your Flickies, your Rickys, your Cluckies...or Cuckies...). You even see this in-game via Sonic & Knuckles when playing as Knuckles as he's chilling with some animals until the lone surviving Egg Robo (from Sonic's (& Tails') campaign) drops a bomb on them. This detail is significant because the Badniks and Capsule prisons in Sonic 3 (& Knuckles) have Animals inside of them as per usual. Considering this takes place shortly after Sonic 2's events, Eggman had to get the Animals somewhere. Fortunately Angel Island's got a lot of them. Even Flying Battery has multiple capsules for this reason, I'm sure. Sure, Knuckles doesn't have an friends that are anthropomorphized like him, but he DOES have friends on the island whom Knux befriends and even protects. Comic book wise, we even saw this in the Sonic 30th Anniversary comic where Knux defends some critters from the arrival of Metal Knux. Buuut that's comics, I'm talking specifically the games~ ^^

[@NIGHTBLOODUSAGI]

he also said that there aren't any sentient animals on the island who can talk to knuckles..like, in English

[@bobthebusbuilder2478]

Tails doesn't have to explain everything because he's the smart guy. Maybe this sonic is fascinated by mushrooms

[@Schnort]

No, at this point Tails wasn't really smart at all. He was just some kid that followed Sonic around.

[@isaacargesmith8217]

Tails in american media at that time for both cartoons and the comics was portrayed more as a naive kid brother who didnt really know a lot. Even Fleetway did something like that if I recall. Its specifically the japanese canon that introduced later on that tails was the smart one of sonic's friends. In fact if anything in SATAM Rotor takes tail's role as the engineering smart one if anything. Even people like ian flynn have said later on that they tried to skew rotor's role in the team to be a bit different with how he uses his smarts and engineering skills just so that tails and him werent just overlapping in the same niche, or something like that.

[@bobthebusbuilder2478]

I'm aware I'm more going on about the series as a whole

[@tonyhakston536]

@@isaacargesmith8217 Tails was established as the smart one IN SONIC 2.

[@tatsuostatic8567]

@@isaacargesmith8217 Oh so that explains why Tails in the cartoon and comics is more kid-like than smart genius. I find it a bit hard to believe he has an IQ of 300 at a young age. I always did like Rotor to be the smart one of the team, too bad his potential was thrown away

[@HiperPivociarz]

Jesus, that cover is just so funny to me for some reason. Just the innocent, happy expression Sonic has on his face, he's just prancing around having a nice day. It's so funny to imagine the follow up image of Knuckles just aggressively punching Sonic in the stomach. It reminds of of Jacob Andrews from Drawfee, who drew his dream about how he was having a nice day walking and Piccolo just punches him in the stomach.

[@diegodankquixote-wry3242]

"And Ken Penders said unto Knuckles, Where is Sonic thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?" Sega Genesis 4:9 Another epik video about the most character of all time! This might have been too far.

[@mr.skateandwatch]

Creative

[@ninlaw9810]

sonic bible

[@firerulezz116]

It was quite bizarre reaching the Enerjak backstory in the comics and seeing an actual bible verse in the dialogue. This is only so surreal by comparison.

[@joeker5208]

Robotnik weaponizing the Island is very strange since we know later in the series that there is a group of guardians who I would think wouldn’t be to into Robotnik turning The Floating Island into basically a flying tank

[@Soufriere84]

Ken pulled a massive retcon on that. He obviously planned from the start for Knux's father to still be alive, but seven generations of ancestors all in hiding with impossibly long lifespans?? That was stupid even by Kenders standards

[@joeker5208]

@@Soufriere84 I like the idea of the Brotherhood of Guardians, but Ken executed it in the lamest way. But even then, the fact that Locke did NOTHING while Robotnik was messing with the Island and using the Chaos Emerald is stupid

[@Soufriere84]

@@joeker5208 Don't get me wrong -- I _loved_ the Knuckles comics (except the last 3 issues). Even with the flaws I can see 25 years later, they were still a tremendous positive influence on me. They taught me to love world-building. And yes, I liked the Brotherhood of Guardians too. Still do, silly as it is. Ken did a lot of unintentionally silly things with what was otherwise a phenomenal concept.

[@Xick]

I wouldn't call it a plothole, because the Brotherhood does nothing about anything, literally ever. Like his King Max, they would've been better as villains.

[@joeker5208]

@@Xick well the Brotherhood’s duty is to protect the Island and the Chaos Emerald. And later issues of the Knuckles book shows that throughout the generations that Guardians will go and take of a threat if it arrives on the Island. So it really doesn’t make any sense (especially since Locke specifically has been monitoring Knuckles’ move non stop) that no one steps in when the Island is made into a floating tank, and the Emerald is being abused

[@Rabbitearsblog]

It's weird how different the Archie Comics were from the games back then and how that had both positive and negative actions on the comic series itself. Awesome video!

[@adhglife]

I personal loved the Archie comics. I grew up with them and they still have a special place in my heart. I’d love to see more!

[@The_hooligans-4eva]

I'm glad we could see the different adaptations of knuckles in Archie and IDW

[@hattoripool1533]

I would love to see someone redraw the Archie Sonic covers and some issue in their own artstyle just to see if they are capable of it

[@Schnort]

I feel like these would be really fun to animate, maybe a community MAP project? Edit: I am now realizing that I typed "multi animator project project" and that's goofy I suppose

[@Shadows_emerald]

I kinda wanna do that now

[@muddashucka9743]

@@Schnort What does MAP stand for?

[@Schnort]

@@muddashucka9743 multi animator project

[@dprototype6431]

I think one of the official IDW artists redrew one of the issues before they got hired.

[@kingkazma3246]

This brought back so many happy memories, times were so simple back then.

[@allanjohnstone5258]

As I UK kid, I really loved the fleetway adaptations of the games. Sonic 3 and knuckles was a great story!

[@josemanuelsantiago5788]

I actually am very found of the flonting island being populated. That gives knuckles a duty not only to a weird gem but to people. Yes the stuff later with the echidna city gets weird but in general i feel the extra habitants are a good narrative recurse.

[@shadowopsairman1583]

The Chaos Emeralds were all green originally in the Comic then, at some point they were made into 7 different colored Gems. The Plane is called the Turbo Prop

[@seant1326]

The other colors originating from 6 other planets.

[@Soufriere84]

*Fun Fact:* "Turboprop" is the name of a specific type of small plane engine, clearly the one the Tornado (never named in the US manual of Sonic 2 or 3) until Tails somehow retrofitted it with a jet booster in under 10 minutes

[@seant1326]

@ᴄᴏɴᴛᴀᴄᴛ ᴍᴇ ᴏɴ ᴛᴇʟᴇɢʀᴀᴍ👉GameApologist BUZZ OFF BOT!!!

[@itsokifwedisagree8909]

I have very fond memories of this issue. It was one of the two issues of Archie Sonic I had. I'm looking forward to you covering the second story in depth as I never picked up that miniseries- looking forward to getting closure on that thirty year old mystery!!!! 😂

[@CallumQuinnCreates]

I would love to hear more about Archie. That book was my childhood.

[@wakeangel2001]

this was the first Archie Sonic comic I ever bought, WAY back when I was but a lad of 10 years. It's later established that Angel Island has an orbit around the planet, so technically its night sky would have different stars in it over the course of the year as it floats from hemisphere to hemisphere, but Knuckles, being a lifelong inhabitant, would know when certain stars should be visible at certain times, sort of like how you can keep track of the zodiac constellations over the year.

[@Door227]

Oh boy Archie, nothing could go wrong here

[@kieranstark7213]

And then came Sonic’s friends accusing Sonic of killing his own girlfriend Sally, letting her get away with vengefully slapping his cheek just because he tried to tell everyone he was a hero that they all would underrate in issue 134 which would lead to her father, herself and Knuckles screaming at him that they hate him in issue 138 and then in issue 155, Tails would do the same thing then in issue 179 (albeit intentionally so for Ian Flynn to completely better the entire series) they would even fight each other!

[@rickyrackey7930]

Ken Penders

[@Soufriere84]

@@rickyrackey7930 Yes, but this issue was before he went nuts… though you can see the start of it in the little details

[@phantom5757]

I would totally be down to see more Archie videos from you

[@AprilSamurai]

I love this series Nick. I wanna see you cover ALL the archie sonic media

[@Adamwinters]

Surprised Penders has never taken credit for being the first one to shatter the “Master Emerald” into smaller shards.

[@AstroTom]

Sonic the Comic also did it so I'm not sure who "owns" the concept

[@glitchy_gamer6417]

Man that Knuckles Intro theme SLAPS!!!! 💯💯💯💯💯

[@vizuren]

True

[@Soufriere84]

This was of course back before Ken Penders went completely off the rails, but the seeds of his insanity are already here. Can't totally blame him (at that point) for creating so much Lore for Knuckles since SA1 was still years away and Sega was famously horrendous at communication back then. Even today we know almost nothing _officially_ about Knuckles since his story concluded at the end of Sonic Adventure 1 and has yet to be revisited. Archie Sonic was batshit but fun.

[@Razorgeist]

Oh wow I actually had this comic back in the day. A friend of mine who is a fellow sonic fan pointed out the Saturn on the cover which I missed. If memory serves me when it comes to Australian animals wasn't it revealed later on that the floating island had once been part of Australia and the Echidnas created it to avoid an asteroid. Nice review Nick!

[@gamemincraft1234]

Recommended on my homepage immediately. He's GROWING IN POWER

[@PuzzlingHousing56]

Something tells me that Knuckles is Nick's favourite character but I can't place it

[@reapertalon]

Me seeing this video was uploaded 1 minute ago be like:

[@Leah-ki7gm]

Memes :0

[@Megabidoof83]

I don't know if you're aware, but there is a short sonic related fan made animation made by PixelRush called "Where there is light..." that i would love to hear you talk aboot. I haven't gotten goosebumps like that in a while when I watched it for the first time.

[@megadaddy2001]

Definitely talk About More ArchieSonic Lore Like the Great War

[@MyNameIsPaulo54]

I think the idea for the thumbnail carried this video to completion. Also i think youtube bungled it and zoomed the thumbnail in too much

[@Martialartfruituser]

14:51 And now sonic is replaced with movie Sonic. Anyway, I still loved this as a kid and still do as an adult. You can tell this is where the comics are slowly beginning to lose the ASOTH insanity and move towards more of a serious tone. Granted its still insane but less fourth wall breaks, sadly as I loved the gags.

[@gammaguyyt]

Im from britain so this is always interesting to hear, long live archie and fleetway!

[@Dawnelldo2]

I do like the idea of Angel Island being mobile and having weapons. Also if all the other animals on AI are Australian does that mean AI is Mobius Australia?

[@Soufriere84]

According to Ken Penders (pre-forced-retcon), Yes. Well, PART of it anyway -- the continent is called "Downunda" and there's a giant crater in the middle where AI used to be. Not really that different from later SA1 where there's a HUGE cliff in the Mystic Ruins where AI originally was -- in-game it crashed a few miles away from its old position.

[@Rose_Bride]

I always feel bad for admitting this, (especially since everyone seems to have such fond memories of them) but even as a kid I was _never_ a fan of The Archie Comics™. And I'm NOT just talking about the Sonic comics, either; I ALSO disliked the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Archie comics. My first and largest complaint (back then) was the art. I remember some of the Sonic covers having absolutely GORGEOUS artwork. Seriously...there are some covers that were STUNNING. ...but THEN when you opened the book, the artwork is...not at ALL the same and CLEARLY not done by the same artist. Even as a kid I felt CHEATED. Back then the comics were sold at my local Revco store (now known as "CVS") and they were always wrapped up so that you couldn't open the book and flip through it (I guess to prevent people from just reading and not buying it) so you never quite knew what kind of artwork quality you were actually getting. I couldn't understand why they didn't just have the cover artist do the _whole thing._ Then the Sonic comics just got SUPER weird with bizarre, with multiple Echidna characters that didn't even _feature_ Sonic. It just seems like they lost interest in Sonic entirely and started focusing on the Echidna family. The _Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle_ Archie comics weren't much better. For some reason they just kept cramming in more and more furry characters to the point that it was no longer even _about_ The Turtles. Of course, back then I didn't know that they were "furries" because I don't think that word existed at that time (early 90's) all I knew was that you no longer saw April (or ANY human characters) and I'm not even sure if The Turtles were even on the same planet or in the same universe anymore.

[@Schnort]

Winter break is coming up and... yeah I'm finally going to commit to reading the Archie comics in full. I've blasted through the IDW comics and I'm starving for more Sonic content, so here goes!

[@superluigi018]

I read it last year and it’s very satisfying. I recommend using the reading order from thankskenpenders

[@Schnort]

@@superluigi018 I appreciate that. I think I'll like it because I've read some fancomics that weren't always the best quality and enjoyed them. It's just daunting because of the reputation the Archie comics have.

[@terencemcfadden7466]

13:07 a knothole plothole if you will

[@cassiedevereaux-smith3890]

Some comic trivia: Kangas are these horse sized kangaroos that Wonder Woman and the amazons ride on Themyscira. Wonder Woman rides one names Jumpas and, back in the Golden Age, she once used it to jump to other planets. My nerd work here is done.

[@Gilbot9000]

Can't tell you how much time lil Gil spent trying to copy Spaz's art style for Sonic. Those covers were so great. I didn't notice the jank in the stories as a kid. Too busy being hype that I had Sonic comics. But yeah, this was amazing for the time. I read these til they were almost falling apart.

[@kylejones8289]

Actually, Sally acting like she didn't know about the Floating Island here still makes sense. She promised both Knuckles and her father that she would act like she didn't know about both Knuckles and the island respectively, so she's playing ignorant here.

[@isaacargesmith8217]

its so weird how the dingos are portrayed as just nice random people at first but then they portray them as like this evil sorta species later on. Those themes get really weird with later dingo stories, and rather questionable too if i recall.

[@BalooDumptruck]

I kinda want them back in IDW tbh

[@rozzav88]

The reason archrie comics is the best adoption of sonic is because they really fleshed out the characters. Complete histories and futures and alternate dimensions of an ensemble cast of characters. I mean knuckles even had his own comic series.

[@DrSheldonCrane444]

I can’t wait to see you cover the Sonic universe comics! I think they’re great!

[@PEHfinale]

It is established in later issues that the Island has a specific orbit that it makes across the surface of Mobius. So Robotnik's plot here caused it to diverge from it's normal path. How Sonic would have any idea what the stars were supposed to look like in the normal path on that day is anyone's guess 🤔 Also, is that "Long Live the King" line as Sonic dangles from a cliffside . . . a forced Lion King reference?

[@themissingbits6375]

“Hey Look it Those guys, It Those guys with names, It Those guys!”

[@clairvoyantPastry]

Great video! I'd love to see your thoughts on Archie as a whole. It was always hard for me to get into it as a kid, so I only started reading consistently with IDW, but as people tend to describe Archie, it has "higher highs and lower lowers" in terms of quality and I'd love to see your take

[@paulusiilonga1398]

Archie and knuckles

[@breexthehedgehog6131]

Knuckles and archie

[@lololordjr]

Knuchie and arkles

[@P-P-Panda]

He doesn’t chuckle

[@kieranstark7213]

Betty and Veronica fight for Sonic affections and he bitch-slaps them with a Piko-Piko Hammer

[@lpnp9477]

Argle Bargle

[@rodrigobrasil4475]

Maybe for some reason Sally didn’t’t want the others to know her relationship to Knuckles and pretended not to know about Angel Island?

[@Jamfrog35]

I think it's more like eggman knows it's in the woods somewhere and decided to burn everything down to the ground.

[@wadeyhyena1657]

Seeing all these Australian Animals really makes me wish Knuckles had the accent too. "G'day, Angel Island! I'm gonna cock up a nutter who slides his palms into me master emerald!" ... sorry to anyone whose Australian.

[@johanstenfelt1206]

Hm, how very interesting, i will look forward to see whatever else you’ll be covering next and I hope you recover.

[@commonviewer2488]

A series on comic-exclusive characters would be good

[@Soufriere84]

Oh, right… I'm not sure when Ken had to retcon Chaos Emerald to Master Emerald -- clearly it was after I stopped following the series and undeniably after this. I don't even remember if the Master Emerald is _named_ as such in the English edition of S3&K (pretty sure it is in the Japanese manual but SOA never translated those old books directly like they should have).

[@yagofazcoisaseuacho8035]

Wasn't the Master Emerald created to seal Mammoth Mogul in this canon, or something like that?

[@JohnnyTightlips2007]

@@yagofazcoisaseuacho8035 Pretty much so you can imagine the continuity issues that happened when SEGA wanted to have the Sonic Adventure story line merge into the Archie adaptation. Chaos had to be moved to a Black Emerald instead.

[@yagofazcoisaseuacho8035]

@@JohnnyTightlips2007 Yeah that was understandable, while I'm not really a huge fan of some of the choices made on the comics, this one was fine, considering a Master Emerald retcon never happened

[@theyeabgang250]

to be honest knuckles is probably the smart one in the Archie book sense he had a fake emerald and putted the real one and that was a big clutch because angel island was going to crash to the mobians

[@kieranstark7213]

Which is why he had no right to play dumb like in Sonic X when he would always fight Sonic as well as the early 2010s (2010 with Sonic Free Riders to 2014 with Rise of Lyric) or the Archie Comics. Sonic Frontiers thankfully fixed that by making them play around like brothers.

[@ellispham4700]

Loved going back down memory lane. I remember being 10 years old and my friend was already on the Sonic Comic train. Him bringing Mecha Madness to school sold me on the series. I immediately went to Hastings and bought Sonic #44. I was so sad they didn’t have Mecha Madness on the shelves anymore. So as soon as I could I sent in a money order for Mecha Madness, Sonic and Knuckles, and Triple Trouble. I loved all the 48 page specials, except maybe Sonic Live 😅. Im rambling. The rest was history lol

[@Soufriere84]

We do not speak of Sonic Live. I have a physical copy of it and even I refuse to acknowledge its existence 🤮

[@ellispham4700]

@@Soufriere84 🤣🤣

[@YasugoLiehu]

9:08 I can tell you why it's there; they wanted a scene where Sonic is tripping balls but they couldn't show him actually eating any of the mushrooms and tripping as a result of that.

[@5tripedTailz]

that fucking saint nick pun killed me

[@dishierbongo2757]

Sonic Prime came out on Netflix this week. For me is came out on Thursday. I watched it, I thought is was pretty good. I won't spoil anything for you or people in the comments. I like this video too, It was weird seeing the giant gap between Sonic 3 Archie and Sonic & Knuckles Archie since in the game canon Sonic & Knuckles is straight after Sonic 3. anyways like the video and can't wait to see Sonic Prime video, that is if you make one. I really like Sonic Speed Reading.

[@alchemistofsteel8099]

I think its annoying because Sonic 3 and Knuckles would have easily made a good comic storyline without as many creative liberatives

[@sherinetintu]

You forgot the real most forgotten version of Sonic & Knuckles Sanic & Sanic

[@JW-ou3tx]

If Santa came down my chimney my pit bull would maul him.

[@xamhehehe7888]

Yes please talk more about Archie knuckles. Heck talk more about that two part story. I didn't get a chance to finish it when I was young.

[@Morgil27]

FYI, Archie wasn't the only comic company thar broke up stories into parts back then.

[@rolfathan]

The art style changes per issue always bothered me. When spaz would clearly do one panel or what have you. I loved seeing different artist styles, I just wanted it to be consistent per issue.

[@DaWrecka]

ngl I wasn't looking at the screen when Nick was reading it, and my ears heard "Mike Kant Turbo-bitch" instead of "Mike Kanterovich".

[@aannttt1267]

today is tomorrow yes

[@MayomeSanz]

14:49 blue arm sonic bottom text

[@benogle4951]

Could you eventually do a video on the OVA because it has to be my favorite piece of sonic media

[@RidgeWalletYT]

Awesome wallet and KeyCase 💯

[@vizuren]

Lol wacthing on birthday 🎂

[@supersmashbro596]

so angel island is floating australia.

[@MrSkysenGames]

Good with more Archie anything.

[@dmanthetiger7179]

Thank you for the video.

[@mechajay3358]

I gotta give it to Archie for at leat trying to add some lore on Angel Island, even if the results are a bit mixed.

[@alexandrpeterberg390]

It's going to be a pretty messy journey should you one day decide to do a Speed Reading of the entire Archie Sonic series. I mean you would have to skip some of the stories because you already covered them in your other videos like this. So there is SEGA which is more or less a mess of a company that entrusted their Sonic project to Archie Comics which was also a mess of a company so it's only fitting that Archie Sonic's canon is pretty messy. It's rather poetic if your Archie Sonic's Speed Reading would also ends up being messy as well. (though please organize it well, ok?)

[@MjolnirRecon]

"Saint Nick." Heh.

[@Sapphaura]

I should really find a reading guide for Archie's Sonic... Lol

[@Soufriere84]

Ian Flynn literally wrote one when Archie still had the rights… it's insane

[@Planag7]

Hey don't you talk bad about the Saturn if Segata we're still alive he'd kick your ass c; Always appreciate your videos still

[@MarxistClownism]

I have the same blue sonic shirt Nick, that makes us shirt brothers.

[@adrianotsiganes189]

Damn he called me out.

[@Black_Kishi]

Archie the comics 3 and Knuckles

[@skeletonlover3214]

The power bro

[@fusionsigh]

For an awesome video and the algorithm

[@ButterBisquit]

Cool video

[@LunarPops]

6:15 Shatter me like glass-

[@someone-hr1zu]

Knuckles The Echidna Sighting

[@SoranotRoxas]

*Alright! More Archie*👍

[@teddybeer6206]

My three worst Archie Sonic artists are no doubt - Dave Manak - Ron Lim And last but certainly not least... - Ken Penders

[@Simon_Electric]

Mushrooms, hit on the head, hallucinations? Sounds a little suss. Anyone else catch that?

[@superepictoadbros6898]

16:36 And thus knuckles went blind because he stared directly into an eclipse

[@GamerTowerDX]

Isn't the blind part when the eclipse ends tho?

[@superepictoadbros6898]

@@GamerTowerDX honestly idk I just know I was told never look directly into an eclipse ever

[@Soufriere84]

@@GamerTowerDX No it's at the peak, the sun's corona is stupid-bright and we can only see it during a total eclipse Staring directly at the sun in general will hurt your eyes, staring at the corona just kills your eyes faster

[@AAhmou]

@@GamerTowerDX Actually no, it is recommended not to look at a solar eclipse at all without proper protection. There is though a very small window when it's safe : the sun should be totally eclipsed by the moon.

[@mechanova]

Whoa...those trumpets make this hard to listen to with headphones

[@nostalgiagamer9452]

Even tho i grew up with fleetway Archie IS still super interesting

[@charlesmartel8056]

Lol you show us a Sonic wallet and then like "but you can buy this other one"? Ok.

[@angelrgrimaldo1374]

Fleetway sonic 3k should be next

[@robertlupa8273]

13:05 A _Plothole_ Village, am I right? :P

[@lololordjr]

Neato

[@SilverPwns]

I only had issues 31-40, 50 (director's cut) 89-99, and 101-130 and a couple others later on.

[@AhmedMagdy-fl2bn]

18:40 where are the big spiders then

[@shadowopsairman1583]

I enjoy the Archie comics Sonic the hedgehog lore

[@ChibiSteak]

Finished fin.

[@relaxedhoodie7309]

Are we going to wait until next year for a Frontiers review?