{"id":15168,"date":"2016-08-25T08:00:14","date_gmt":"2016-08-25T08:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=15168"},"modified":"2016-08-23T16:22:41","modified_gmt":"2016-08-23T16:22:41","slug":"sonic-the-hedgehogmega-man-worlds-unite-book-1-deadly-fusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2016\/08\/25\/sonic-the-hedgehogmega-man-worlds-unite-book-1-deadly-fusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonic the Hedgehog\/Mega Man Worlds Unite Book 1: Deadly Fusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy <\/strong>Ian Flynn<\/strong>,<\/strong> Joel Enos<\/strong>,<\/strong> Dan Schoening<\/strong>,<\/strong> Tracy Yardley<\/strong>,<\/strong> Terry Austin<\/strong>,<\/strong> Luis Antonio Delgado<\/strong>,<\/strong> Matt Herms<\/strong>,<\/strong> Ben Bates<\/strong>,<\/strong> Jack Morelli <\/strong>& various (Archie Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-62738-998-3<\/p>\n

From the earliest days of comicbooks, the periodical pamphlets have been a cheap and effective way to augment brands and franchises: offering stopgap and interim \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extra\u00e2\u20ac\u009d adventures and experiences for stars like <\/strong>John Wayne<\/strong>, <\/strong>Roy Rogers<\/strong> or <\/strong>Alan Ladd<\/strong>, TV, movie and kids cartoon dynasties such as <\/strong>Star Trek<\/strong>, <\/strong>Tom & Jerry<\/strong> or <\/strong>Bugs Bunny<\/strong> and an almost infinite number of games, toys and even sugar-packed edibles.<\/p>\n

It’s solid business sense and mutually advantageous: publishers get to sell comics, maintain space on shop shelves and cross-sell to new audiences whilst licensees get a relatively inexpensive method of keeping their properties active in at least part of the public consciousness in the long periods between blockbuster releases or off-season doldrums.<\/p>\n

Since its 1991 release, Sega’s video game <\/strong>Sonic the Hedgehog<\/strong> has become a fully entrenched global phenomenon. Soon after the initial game release the speedy beast and his crime-busting animal associates became comicbook stars in Britain, America and all over the world.<\/p>\n

In the USA, family friendly Archie Comics won the rights to publish an ever-expanding cast of characters beginning with a brace of miniseries in 1992 and 1993. <\/strong>Sonic the Hedgehog <\/strong>volume 3 debuted in July 1993 and has continued continuously ever since, becoming the longest-running game\/toy based comicbook in American history at 283 issues and counting. With demand remaining high, the Hedgehog quickly generated a raft of spin-off titles such as <\/strong>Knuckles the Echidna<\/strong> and <\/strong>Sonic X<\/strong> to fill out a whole boutique universe of similarly-themed titles.<\/p>\n

Decades later Capcom also picked Archie as publisher for their own complex, complicated and heavily cross-marketed video game franchise Rockman<\/em>. You probably know it as <\/strong>Mega<\/strong><\/strong> Man<\/strong>. An expanding line of comics started in April 2011 as the time-bending, dimension-hopping sci fi exploits of the plucky robot warrior and his worthy allies became another genuine funnybook phenomenon.<\/p>\n

Last year the world – especially the corporate fantasy-scape shared by kids and game-playing adults – grew closer and overlapped when these two separate but intellectual properties clashed in a spectacular, monolithically successful team-up called <\/strong>Worlds Collide<\/strong> wherein the universes of Sonic and Mega Man were explosively thrown together, creating fresh worlds, a new kind of excitement and better villains to battle\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Nothing screams \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sequel\u00e2\u20ac\u009d like record-breaking sales and a legion of strident, thrill-starved fans, so that breakthrough meeting was swiftly revisited in an even more ambitious follow-up. The <\/strong>Worlds Unite<\/strong> event reunites the heroes and villains, encompassing all the disparate titles of both pantheons and will eventually fill three graphic novel compilations.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Deadly Fusions<\/strong> – gathering material from <\/strong>Sonic Universe<\/strong> #76, <\/strong>Sonic Boom<\/strong> #8, <\/strong>Sonic the Hedgehog<\/strong> #273, <\/strong>Mega Man<\/strong> #50, <\/strong>Sonic the Hedgehog: Worlds Unite Battles<\/strong> #1 and <\/strong>Mega Man: Worlds Unite Battles <\/strong>#1 – sets the ball rolling; filled with a frankly bewildering array of heroes and villains in constant (family-friendly) conflict, but that’s merely a tantalising, appetite-whetting prelude to cataclysmic and universe altering events yet to come\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

Cooperatively crafted by scripters Ian Flynn & Joel Enos with art by Dan Schoening, Ben Bates, Tracy Yardley, Terry Austin, Luis Antonio Delgado, Matt Herms, Ben Bates, Jack Morelli & Rachel Deering, the drama begins when \u00c3\u00bcber-menace Sigma<\/em> comes back from a furious future in the realm of Mega Man X<\/em> to ally with contemporary master-menace Zavok<\/em> and crazed terrorist Xander Payne<\/em>. In his spare time Sigma also kidnaps Mega Man and Sonic’s respective arch-nemeses Dr. Wily<\/em> and Dr. Eggman<\/em> to create a legion of baddies dubbed the Deadly Six<\/em> of Lost Hex<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

From his pocket dimension he then declares war on Mega Man’s world and that of Sonic and his animal allies. Sigma seems unstoppable after both heroes are defeated and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153disappeared\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, even though their friends the Robot Masters<\/em> and Freedom Fighters<\/em> valiantly take up the struggle.<\/p>\n

However, as the tomorrow tyrant’s schemes inexorably near fruition, he is unaware that his captive scientific renegades are scurrilously working their own agendas: preparing to each become sole survivor and singular conqueror of all the varied realms of creation\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

To Be Continued\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

A non-stop, manic fight-fest to delight youngsters – and everybody with bulging thumbs who steadfastly hone their competitive natures on a console every chance they get – <\/strong>Deadly Fusion<\/strong> is an uncomplicated and relentless avalanche of non-stop rollercoaster action, packed with visually potent extras.<\/p>\n

These include a handy prequel recap feature, a brace of ‘Bonus Battles’<\/em> vignettes, a series of gag-strips (by Bill Freiberger, Jonathan H. Gray, Lamar Wells, Rick Bryant & Aleah Baker), a copious sketch and design section detailing the development of the new characters and a truly vast gallery of covers and variants by Patrick \u00e2\u20ac\u0153SPAZ\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Spaziante, Rafa Knight, Ben Bates, Evan Stanley, Jamal Peppers, Phyllis Novin, Ben Hunzeker, Ryan Jampole, Gary Martin, Steve Downer, T. Rex, Roger & Idalia Robinson, Ed Huang, Irvin Rodriguez and Patrick Thomas Parnell.<\/p>\n

Breathtaking and compulsive game-based fun \u00e2\u20ac\u201call that’s missing is the electronic beeping and explosion sounds, and I’m sure someone will be happy to provide those as the pages oh-so-swiftly turn\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6
\n\u00c2\u00a9 Sega. All rights reserved. CAPCOM, Mega Man and all related characters \u00c2\u00a9 CAPCOM. Published by Archie Comics Publications, Ltd under license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ian Flynn, Joel Enos, Dan Schoening, Tracy Yardley, Terry Austin, Luis Antonio Delgado, Matt Herms, Ben Bates, Jack Morelli & various (Archie Comics) ISBN: 978-1-62738-998-3 From the earliest days of comicbooks, the periodical pamphlets have been a cheap and effective way to augment brands and franchises: offering stopgap and interim \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extra\u00e2\u20ac\u009d adventures and experiences … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Sonic the Hedgehog\/Mega Man Worlds Unite Book 1: Deadly Fusion”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[80,97,124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adaptations","category-kids-all-ages","category-licensed-product"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-3WE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}