STC's Chaotix: The Fleetway Adaptation 

I always thought the concept of them as guardians of the special zone and using Nack as a fake member who betrays them was pretty rad.

Fleetway: actually references aspects of the Sonic video games Archie: what if Sonic had an uncle?

So what we learned today: We British are a very volatile people.

I love how Nick's immediate response upon seeing Knuckles being strangled by Espio is to burst out in laughter. (I mean, I did too.)

One of the writers actually said the Metallix were based off the Daleks from Doctor Who. He also said that the show had been off the air long enough (at the time) that he didn't expect anyone to get it.

My brain is *THE SPECIAL ZONE*

I always forget how incredible the art quality in STC was. Most of the time it surpassed archie's art standards.

6:50 Ah yes, I remember Espio’s secret ability, having someone at choke point 😂

It looks like every single member of the chaotix could break your spine, even Charmy

Sega...where was espio’s choke ability in Sonic Heroes? This better be added in a Sonic heroes remake/remaster/port

A L L A C C O R D I N G T O P L A N . - Every robot villain ever.

yeah...this is ALOT better than the Archie adaptation.

"Flippin' heck!!" was the go-to placeholder way of swearing in 90s kids media from the UK.

The great thing about this short comic though, even though it is short and doesn't do 'that much' as you say, is it subtly sets up SO many things that were paid off. Not just the metallic brotherhood, but the role of the omni viewer in the special Zone, Nack being a traitor, emerald Hill zone folk on angel island... all going to be important if you carry on reading. Also, that gun. The fact he pulled it out of his hat as a tiny little thing and it expanded to some full size massive death machine. THAT of all things is significant 😜

Knuckles hops into a Mario pipe and is transported to a land of mushrooms? That fits really well lmao

UK viewer here who grew up with STC. Yes, they did refer to their readers as Boomers. I assume it was to do with the term "Sonic Boom", but since it pre-dated the "OK, Boomer" meme by quite a few years, it didn't sound weird to us.

I always heard Fleetway was goofy and weird compared to Archie but this actually seems rad? Thanks for the video, Nick. This was fun to see.

You could’ve just went, _“Looks like knuckles found the computer room!”_

Disappointed the video didn't end with "TOOT TOOT Sonic Boomers".

While I've DEVOURED Archie and all its Spin-Offs, I've yet to read a single issue of the UK version (though it is on my lifes to-do-list). So this is certainly going to be...new.

This version of the Chaotix seems more in line with their characterization from Sonic Heroes, Vector the leader, Charmy the annoying youngster, and Espio the stoic but powerful warrior. As much of an OG expert on the Sonic franchise as I am I have to admit Fleetway's STC is the one corner of the franchise I know almost nothing about.

Yay! The Fleetway books! If you have any questions about any of them, drop me a line, I love these things! For example, yes, Boomers was slang for readers. Richard Elson's artwork is my earliest and heaviest artistic influence, I get your thing about the jelly bean bodies but I find his work to be simply incredible and he was on the book practically start to finish. I've met him at some UK conventions and he's an incredibly nice guy too! Comics with four short five to seven page stories are pretty normal in the UK, it's the 2000AD model. Just how we've done comics for a long time. What's weird is the Emerald Hill folk living on the Floating Island is something that wouldn't come to a head until the run up to issue 100, and they sowed the seeds for that this early. Zordon's actually pretty accurate. Your reaction to the outright strangling got me belly laughing. The Metallix are like goddamn Terminators in this continuity.

Richard Elson's artwork was godly during this era.

If "Toot toot Toodly-Doo" doesn't become the ending lines for videos from here on, I'll be upset lol

This comic was my childhood. I collected every issues, read and reread every story and for me it expanded the world of sonic outside of the games so well. This story (along with his own special issue) nailed Knuckles as my favourite character.

Man, talk trash but the fleetway version of the Chaotix got most of their personalities pretty spot on from Vector the leader, Mighty the aggressive hot head, to Charmy the Charmy. Gotta respect being ahead of the curve, especially in comparison to Vector the “jive talker”.

As someone who’s read both Archie and StC, I can say that in terms of earlier game adaptations, StC seems to do a better job. From Sonic Adventure and onwards Archie will take the cake with adaptations (mostly by default considering StC didn’t get past SA). However, the rest of StC is an absolute drug trip

Everyone: SHUT UP CHARMEE

If I'm being real, this comic was far better then the Archie comics.

I grew up reading Sonic The Comic. The quality varied wildly from story to story, but as a rule of thumb, Anything written by Nigel Kitching and Illustrated by either Richard Elson or Nigel Dobbyn was absolute gold.

Man, it’s weird to hear the other side of the story, because STC was all I had for lore as a kid. Knuckles in my head has always been wearing a necklace.

'Sonic The Comic' is still my favourite official piece of non-game media in the franchise.

_Dude, I'm a crocodile!_ That was so hecking funny to me somehow

“These animals are packing all kinds of heat”. Phrasing! Think about what fandom you are talking about.

Can we talk about Vector's bizarre shoulder holes? Are they...part of him? Is he wearing a vest or something?

The Archie chaotix got way better under flynn. I hope you’ll cover the “rescuing Matilda” arc!

As much as I always hated the fleetway designs, this video really helped me appreciate the quality and work they put into the art.

Right when I heard the Sonic boomers, I waited to hear: "Toot toot Sonic boomers."

When I clicked on this video I got an ad with the first words of “Reading is to your mind what exercise is to your body.”

If I remember correctly the omni viewer is their interpretation of the player. Metallix were basically Daleks.

I love how much this guy loves making these videos. Keep it up, guy 👌🏻

It's weird that the omniviewer is actualy really closely involved with how robotnik was able to takeover the world in this continuity.

I always found it off putting that Knuckles Nikes’ symbol on his chest is an actual neckless instead of some special chestfur.

Aka my favorite interpretation of the Chaotix.

Yes mega-droid, who was a sentient mega-drive, called us boomers. Not entirely sure why but was super cool. he was the person doing the calls to other comic books for references normally the yellow bars and would say what’s coming up in the next issues and fan art work.

It wasn't until recently, (after watching DiamondBolt review Transformer Comics) I realised that the UK would get different versions of comics than other regions. I suppose it makes sense as things were very analogue then, no digital creation of comics which can be transferred to printers.

17:17 Oh God, modern Tails literally has a big brain here!

Well there is a whole podcast about it called Sonic the Comic the Podcast by David and Chris.

The Metalix in STC are basically Daleks from Doctor Who, just some info for future videos

STC is probably my ask time favorite comic, I followed it from issue 1 all the way until the end of the main run, it’s such a shame it just became re-runs, Richard Elson’s art is fantastic and the universe is that Nigel Kitching created was amazing I remember the Epic issue 100 (arguably its peak) I can’t wait to see you read more. Where did you read these if you don’t mind me asking, I would love to read this series again

Impossible, OmniViewer shows up, and yet not once does he mention his book "Operation Red Dragon: The Daikaiju wars Part 1"

The Fleetway comics have the best version of Amy IMO. I love that her “romance” with sonic is just her annoying him by calling herself his girlfriend.

I was addicted to this comic as a kid, always got excited when it was posted through my door. This video has brought back some memories! Accidentally left them all in my old loft when I moved out, but glad to see they live on in digital form.

Nice to see someone covering the comics of my youth! I have some info on some of this if it helps? • When we were first introduced to Metallix (Metal Sonic) he was literally called 'The Sonic Terminator' on the front cover (maybe it was the title of the story too? This was decades ago) so that's why he's often seen as an unstoppable badass with few voice lines • I think the Metallix Emperor was more closely based on the Master Mold Sentinel from X-Men comics, the red was probably a nod to the Chaotix boss though • STC was 'presented' by a character called Megadroid, a robot created out of bits of old Mega Drives (Genesis) who loved the comic. He called readers 'Boomers' and yeah I guess maybe it was because of a sonic boom! I never put that together as a kid. He used to call humans 'Humes' too • The 'Chaotix Crew' turn up quite a few more times during the main casts adventures. At one point it's revealed that Charmy is a Prince - maybe it was some outlandish royal party he was thinking of? But they were always treated as sort of goofy backup as far as I recall, never anything to take too seriously • Nack's shrinking gun, and the technology behind it actually comes up in a future story as I recall... I understand how reading something like this might be jarring if you played the game, but at the time of it's release, NO-ONE I knew could afford the 32X - for the longest time I had to go around to a friends house to even play a Mega Drive - so this is the only way we got to experience the story, and in hindsight I'm super glad we got STC and not Archie. I'm sure the latter is fine if you grew up with it, but looking back on that stuff makes for bizarre reading indeed! And I'll always be a fan of Richard Elson's work - what it had over many of the other artists work at the time was consistency - the Sonic designs and the STC specific designs might have all been weird, but at least they looked like they belonged together, in the same world. Aside from the fact that everyone from the games is naked of course...

This started the Brotherhood of Metallix arc which was utterly incredible, one of the best arcs in the comic Kitchin and Elson were one hell of a dream team

still teasing with the Knuckles Chaotix review This is the second time I was like "Damn it, it's just another comic."

It sounds like you had a lot of fun making this video. XD

Again, another awesome and in-depth Sonic video from Game Apologist, nice work!

This was great seeing you read through this, it's amazing how much I remember. I look forward to seeing more of your reactions to the Fleetway interpretations. Their interpretation of the Insta-shield from Sonic 3 was interesting to say the least!

Awesome recap, brought some of my childhood back. There is also a 'casino on angel island' ark in the fleetway comics which I swear was also taken from the games - if you have time it is also worth checking out. If for no other reason Mario (lookalike) features! Either way, great to see a comparison with fresh eyes

You know it would’ve been cool if the characters and elements from Sonic the Comic appeared in the Archie Sonic comics. Maybe the whole ordeal with Naugus in the throne and Mecha Sally causes Sonic’s mood to sour and he starts acting a bit like his STC counterpart, Tekno the Canary is a mechanic who wanted to work with the Battle Bird Armada only to be rejected, leading her to join the Freedom Fighters for revenge, Shortfuse being reimagined as Shorty the former Robian who was banished by the Sand Blast Freedom fighters and has stolen a robot suit from Eggman and fights to save his family who protested his banishment, Porker Lewis and Johnny Lightfoot being appointed as sort of police by Naugus who go on the run after learning of Naugus’s plans, the Drakon Empire being an underwater civilization who had kidnapped a chunk of the Devil Dog population and evolved them to use as slaves maybe seeing Thrash and emotionally breaking him by turning him into a Devil Dog, maybe Thrash is forced to work with Knuckles when he and his people are also kidnapped and subjected to the same thing.

I forgot STC even had the chaotix

I’ve got to say the differences between these comics, Archie And the IDW comics, Something that really interests me. I’ve only recently just found your channel and I have been watching so much of the sonic speed reading, Game apologist for the classic games, And your humour is just so good! Can’t wait for more

Knuckles looks upon the master emerald in its rightful resting place, then travels around Angel Island to check up on its inhabitants and explore, eventually uncovering an ancient relic that takes him to an unusual world. That’s literally just the Knuckles prologue short for Sonic Frontiers!

SANIC THE CAMIC

Great video man! Reminded me of my childhood, keep up the good work 👍🏻

0:56 Sparkster? I loved Rocket Knight Adventures. I was always surprised that series didn't take off better. It seemed almost tailor-made for a cartoon or comic adaptation. Maybe that's because the plot was essentially Star Wars, though. Still, fun game with an awesome soundtrack. Oh, and my apologies that this comment isn't about Sonic.

I woke up to this video, and I have to say, I like this interpretation of the Chaotix story! Thanks for another great video, Knickles!

I found Sonic had special one issue comic in France called Sonic Adventures. Might want to check it out.

Excellent vid B.T.W. Oh! And keep up the good work Game Apologist. 👍👍

UK Sonic fan here! Grew up with these comics and seeing an American's take on these stories is a joy to see. I'm hoping you do more in the future! Our crazy evil Super Sonic awaits you in a future video I'm sure 😉

You're so damn productive! I like your workflow :D

I like that the Chaotix was actually trying to kill Knuckles like he's a real threat. To many times guardian forces in stories all they do is drive out bad guys as if they wont try again to get back in or get the thing they are protecting. I can't help but think of charmy with a stereotypical cockney accent in this comic.

As a UK listener I greatly appreciate you covering Sonic The Comic (STC/Fleetway).....loved your Sally video too btw.

This was one of the first storys i ever read after i started getting these, i was frigging hooked, i loved the art style and storys And yeah, we didnt really have a comics code authority over here so a lot of comics here got away with some shit under the radar, Its why we have 2000AD and VIZ lol Also, that comics format (magazine) is pretty standard here and could be just as wierd to americans as your format is to me so im glad you mentioned it just in case anyone wants to read them

This is my favourite art style for the classic versions of the characters tied with Tysson Hesque's

Damn the uk comics had good art

16:25 I’m sensing Doctor Who, Emperor Of The Daleks, Evil of the Daleks vibes here

yooo? im that early??? i only watched one of your videos and i absolutely LOVED IT, might subscribe :)

Man, I loved this comic as a kid. Had it on subscription for years. I never cared for the apparent story in the games. Heck, never even realised they had a story in them. But this comic really turned Sonic into something as epic as Star Wars for me (which was great, as I didnt like Star Wars all that much).

now this is what i was waiting for mate. this is my childhood, right here.

Im actually loving this chaotix series of videos

One thing to note is the publication dates. STC's 'adaptation' was released the month after the game reached Europe (May 95 for the game, June 95 for the comic), compared to the US game release of March 95 with the comic taking all the way until November 95. With the usual kind of writing, art and printing lead times, STC has probably yet to even play the game when they started putting things together. I also doubt they got a whole ton of info directly from Sega outside of a fairly typical press release pack of assets to reference the characters (when the guy who wrote two of the four UK Sonic novels was interviewed, he revealed that about the extent of the support given was being told to "Read a copy of Stay Sonic", and everything else was just based on the games and manuals). That would go a ways to the essentially unrelated story, lack of Heavy and Bomb, as well as integrating Nack. Triple Trouble was still relatively new, with the Chaotix arc starting more or less as soon as the Sonic & Knuckles one wrapped up. I always considered it a fun point that the original Metallix, the actual Metal Sonic of the CD arc, was never actually beaten in the comic. It had to be erased from time with iffy (and cheaty) time travel shenanigans. They did the metal boi pretty good really.

Wtf is this, I love it

I love how wild any version of the sonic comics get at time. Knuckles with a glock and espio trying to strangle knuckels is so funny out of context

Ah now THIS is my sonic comic! loved the darker parts, metal sonic being written like doctor whos daleks insane super sonic. amys girlfriend tekno and so much much more. and yeah omni viewer is pretty much the guardian of the special zone. god i cannot wait til you do more of this series it totally blends the games in a much better way than archie did

it was covered in a later issue but when mighty and vector used the tether rings to swing on the little planet chain to kill a metallix, it was raw as hell

Sorry I'm late, but great video as always! I think I may prefer Fleetway over Archie but I'm still not sure. Also I love it whenever Espio freaking strangles Knuckles lol!

Please talk about more fleetway stuff! I love this comic! Also for anyone interested in this comic you should check out Sonic The Comic The Podcast! It's a great listen

The thing to remember about Fleetway is...it's nuts. Though I guess you could say that for early Archie too.

I wished you talked about Sonic the comic online since it's really well done

Growing up with Archie and reading it for the 20+ years it was around, I had always heard about the Fleetway comic, but never bothered to check it out. The artwork (from this story at least) looked really good for the most part and the personalities of the characters seemed vastly different from the ones I'm used to from Archie. Definitely going to try to check out more of it now. Thanks for the video.

Man... Imagine that this betrayal by Nack is a starting point for a battle between him and the Chaotix. More than one Metal Sonic? A boss battle between Los chaotix and Nack and perhaps some other rival? Maybe bring Bean and Bark... (Sonic Championship) I LOVE IT! This gives you an idea of ​​what Knuckles Chaotix (32x) would have been if only it had been more worked out.

Something I really liked about Fleetway, I've gotta admit, was how often times, the artwork was pretty close to the Classic games, and was overall more consistent in quality than the Archie comics were in its early issues. But even with that said, man oh man, those Modern Sonic designs towards the end of the series (17:14) were just weeeeird. Not a huge fan myself.

2:28 It's a Stargate. October 18, 1994: Sonic & Knuckles is released wirldwide. October 28, 1994: Stargate is released worldwide. Coincidence? Yes.

I grew up with Sonic the Comic, this is giving me serious nostalgia!

Knuckles : Enters special zone Screen face : *Ah so you have chosen DEATH* Sends out Chaotix

That charmie ending si the best XD Also, great video.

I love the STC comics. I actually got back into Sonic because of them tbh. For a bit I got really sick of it but the stories it had brought me back.

To be fair, Knuckles did thtoe the iron bar into the engine of Metal Sonic, so that's probably the reason why he got destroyed in one shot.