"Here comes the BOOM, baby?"
—Sonic the Hedgehog
A Comic-Book Adaptation of the Sonic the Hedgehog spin-off cartoon and games, Sonic Boom. Much like Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) and Sonic X before it, this series was published by Archie Comics.
Like the spin-off it was based on, this comic series was both more light-hearted and very silly compared to the mainline games and Archie's run at the time. Ian Flynn was the head writer for the first few issues, though writers from the show, such as Bill Freiberger, would come on to write a few issues to better connect to the series, and one episode from the series ("Return Of The Buddy Buddy Temple Of Doom") directly references this comic.
It ran from October 2014 to September 2015, when Archie ended the series at issue #11, making it notable as the shortest-lived Sonic comic series. Several of the writers here would go on to write episodes for the Boom series. The comic's version of Sticks the Badger would also end up crossing over with the main book and the Mega Man Archie series in Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Unite, which took up four issues of this run.
This series provides examples of:
- Action Bomb: Eggman makes a robot with a bomb for a head to help him win at go-kart racing. Nobody notices it has a bomb for a head, because it is wearing glasses and a moustache.
- Bait-and-Switch: In finding the mecha-golem in Issue #1, Sonic and crew follow Sticks, on the knowledge that her time in the wild gave her a nose for tracking. In actuality, she just liked how the grass smelled, and she was just following the (very large) footprints.
- Bat Family Crossover: Although Sticks is the only major character showing up here (although she is flanked by Fastidious Beaver and Comedy Chimp), the title crosses over with Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Universe, and Mega Man for Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Unite.
- Beat Them at Their Own Game: In Issue #7, Sonic is adamant at beating Eggman at go-kart racing, even as Eggman keeps deploying traps against the rules of the game.
- Bigger Is Better: Subverted in Issue #3. Tails is looking for a new hammer for Amy. The hardware store beaver shows him a hammer, to which Tails makes a "bigger" motion with his hands. So the beaver drags out a sledgehammer, to which Tails makes a "much bigger" motion. Finally, the beaver uses a forklift to bring out a hammer that's twice Tails' size, to which Tails makes a "little bit smaller" motion.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Wouldn't be Sonic Boom without a bunch of this. In the first issue, when Sonic first says Sticks' name, it's drawn as a logo. Horrified, Sticks asks why, to which he replies:Sonic: Yeah, it's a first issue gimmick. We'll go back to regular lettering next month.
- This persists throughout the comic, with everyone else doing something similar, except for Orbot and Cubot, who try, but fail to get logo's of their own.
- At the start of Issue #6, Sonic trips over his introduction caption, and laments that he liked it more when they introudced themselves.
- At the beginning of Issue #7, Sonic tries grabbing onto a text caption, but fails, trying to reassure himself that wouldn't be able to hold his weight anyway. Moments Later, Amy chastises the two of them for breaking the fourth wall as Knuckles points out thw monthly comic release schedule.
- Bubble Pipe: Used by Sticks in the prologue before the comic begins, to explain the backstory of the series.
- Butt Cannon: Eggmans' robot in Isse #4 has one, which shoots at Amy, and a Note from Ed. is disgusted at the thought of a butt gun.
- Brick Joke:
- Early in Issue #2, Sticks defiantly puts herself in her own cage so Knuckles wouldn't have to. This is how she escapes once inside Eggman's robot, as she knows how to escape her own cage and set the others free.
- In Issue #3, Orbot and Cubot are disappointed at not having their own logo's for their names. Later on, Orbot shouts Moron at Cubot, and it's stylised like a yellow Logo.
- Call-Back: Several of the catchphrases from the show appear in Issue #5 (not coincidentally, Bill Freinberger wrote this issue), such as Lady Walrus shouting "My Baby!" when they're in peril, and Eggman shouting at his robots to attack Sonic and his friends.
- The Cameo:
- Fastidious Beaver and Comedy Chimp appear in Issue #4, complaining about Eggmans' attacks.
- Issue #5 has quite a lot of the show's villager cast turn up; Lady Walrus, Admiral Beaverton, and Fastidious Beaver are all asked to buy Eggmans' bridge in Issue #5. but they ignore him. Comedy Chimp is outright press-ganged into buying it, and flat-out states that he doesn't trust him. Mike the Ox, Dave the Intern, among many others also appear in the issue in other panels.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Frequently invoked with Sticks; anything crazy she says is frequently true (or the very least, true by accident). In Issue #6, Sticks's assertion that Eggman plans to scan their biodata while they race is entirely correct, which is noted quite literally by her in the following issue. In fact, her more outlandish idea of Eggmans' kart turning into a dragon (it turns into a spider instead) isn't even that far off either, but is happy with two out of three wins.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Dr. Eggman requires his breakfast to be evil. Apparently if it's left waiting too long, the amount of evil in his waffles decreases. Somehow.
- Clue from Ed.: Issue #4 has one telling readers where to find the first appearance of "Big Boy 1.0" — the following caption immedietely laughs at the reader thinking they were safe from such notes. A few pages later, Sonic himself informs the viewer of when they last fought the robot, and the caption is more annoyed about it.
- Parodied in Issue #6, where the caption begins to refer back to another issue, but is confusded because this is the first reference to it.
- The Con: Eggman wants to blow up a bridge. But he doesn't want to blow up the bridge he already owns, so he tried to sell it to someone else... so he can blow it up.
- Credits Gag: Some issues have funny titles instead of the intended job descriptions, such as Issue #7, where all the credits are puns on flying and falling.
- Crossover Cameo: At the end of issue #8, there's a surprise cameo by Sally, setting up the universe's tie-in with the Worlds Unite crossover event.
- Deadpan Snarker: Amy's in top form here.Sonic: (while observing what appears to be a large footprint made by the Golem) Ah. I wonder what size sneaker that'd wear?
Knuckles: Probably 160—I found that out with my face! I was gathering intelligence.
Amy: And yet you've retained none of it. - Depending on the Writer: In contrast with the animated series, Amy's noticeably snarkier.
- Denser and Wackier: As with the TV Show, inverted.
- The Ditz: Knuckles, though it becomes a plot-point in that he dislike Amy treating him poorly because of his lack of intelligence, leading to him teaming up with Eggman.
- Droste Image: In the final issue of Sonic Boom: There's a clever two of Eggman and Sticks both looking through their spy cameras to spy on each other infinitely.
- Dull Surprise: Amy does this to help Knuckle's feel good about saving someone from the robot.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- The first issue came out on the 29th of October, a full week before the cartoon and video games, making this the first official part of the franchise to debut.
- Sticks'..er..staff, is briefly used by Amy in Issue #3 to replace her hammer. The weapon of choice for Sticks is consistently a Boomerang, until Season 2 of the animated series, where she uses the staff more often.
- Face–Heel Turn: A less serious instance than usual. After Knuckles gets fed up with the team's belittling, particularly on Amy's part, he temporarily defects to Eggman. Subverted, however, as he was attempting a double agent scenario to both beat Eggman and put his belittling friends in their place. He just wasn't bright enough to pull it off on his own...
- Funny Background Event: Throughout Issue #2, Sonic is whizzing about the place, finally free from his cage, which he greatly disliked being cooped up in.
- Grammar Nazi: Amy does this a lot with Knuckles, which is partly why he defected to work for Eggman in Issue #2.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: Lampshaded by Sonic in Issue #6, as Eggman invites the team to a go-karting competition, and wonders how many heroes get to go-kart with their arch-nemesis (clearly alluding to Mario and Bowser in Mario Kart).
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Comedy Chimp in Issue #6 has these (projected by a Bee-bot above him). They both convince him to crash his kart for the publicity.
- Literal-Minded: After Sonic and Tails return from their fight with Eggman, Sticks reports that Tails house has been stolen. When they go to check things out, they find that the hut itself is gone. Turns out the house itself and by proxy, everything therein was carried away by a cyborg rock golem.
- Misapplied Phlebotinum: Eggman has invented a Genesis Portal device — which can open portals to other times and dimensions — but failed to understand its significance completely.
- Mundane Made Awesome: THE ROCK OF DESTINY!, which Sticks bigs up as being an anicent tool used before good and evil were established concepts, and it does indeed defeat Eggmans' robot. It's actually just a rock Sticks found, and she's got a whole bunch of them in her burrow.
- Mythology Gag:
- The names written as logos in the first issue harkens back to the early main series comics where Sonic's name was printed this way in the first few pages. Also, Cubot griping about his place in Eggman's organization, while wondering whatever happened to all of Eggman's other minions from all the other Sonic series.
- Issues #6 and #7 are titled "Everybody's Super Sonic Racing", which was the menu music track from Sonic R (Ironically, Sonic doesn't use a Kart in that game, which he does here).
- No Fourth Wall: The show often broke the fourth wall fairly often, but here, the comic takes every opportunity to point out that they are in a comic book. Sonic in particular mentions a running story arc in the early issues of the comic being interrupted because they all decided to ghost Eggmans' attack at the beach, and Eggman mentions that he hasn't won in four issues, and in Issue #11 outright hands Sonic a copy of the exact comic issue he's starring in.
- Not Hyperbole: Sonic's motto of "Gotta Go Fast" turns out to be something he needs to do, otherwise he gets quite agitated.
- Oktoberfest: #5 has a parody called Eggtoberfest.
- The Paranoiac: Sticks is convinced a mysterious "Them" are wire-tapping Tails. Even though he doesn't have a phone.
- Police Pig: In Issue #11, Kyle's employer is arrested by two of these.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Sticks figures out that her universe and the other franchises' universes are now permanently connected by just guessing at what would be plot appropriate.
- Skewed Priorities: Tails and Eggman briefly geek out over the robotic specifications of Eggmans' mecha.
- Shout-Out:
- In Issue #1 Tails and Eggman say two lines from Back to the Future (1985); Eggman confirms the output of the primary drive for his mecha is 1.21 gigawatts (the same needed for the Time Machine in the film), and Tails using Emmett's catchphrase of "Great Scott!" in response (which he said a lot in surprise).
- In Issue #3 Cubot finds Amy's Hammer, and says "My Precious!" the same way Golem does in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, with the panel going all dark to emphasize his unhealthy attachment to it (not unlike Golem and the One Ring).
- In Issue #11, Kyle the Gorilla gets a job washing windows on a skyscraper, with bi-planes circling it. The caption simply reads "His intentions were misunderstood".
- Short-Runner: Wasn't even serialized for a year before it's cancellation, making it the shortest run of the Sonic comics.
- Unsound Effect: Lots of the sound effects are usually prefixed with "Ker-" ("KER-WHISPER", "KER-MUNCH", "KER-TENNIS", and "KER-DISAPPOINTED" being some notable examples). Issue #11 turns them into mathematical equations.
- Victory Hoist: In Issue #5, after Team Sonic destroys Eggman’s robots who were attacking the villagers, the grateful villagers cheer for the heroes and carry them away. Eggman sadly watches and asks why the villagers never carry him on their shoulders.
- Visual Pun:
- The third issue has a montage in which the gang tries to find a replacement for Amy's hammer. Knuckles brings a hammerhead shark.
- The fourth issue's cover features Sticks fighting a T-rex with a sling full of rocks. It's the Sticks and Stones variant cover.
