Countdown to Chaos by BenBates

Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog issues 253-256

This turned out to be way more work than I had anticipated. I pitched the idea of the four connecting covers and did a quick thumb showing the character placements and issue breaks, but for story purposes (if I recall correctly) characters needed switching around. I was busy working on the last issues of the 'Worlds Collide' crossover and I mistakenly thought "Ah, thats ok. I'll draw one cover at a time and make changes as I go."

Massive mistake. I now know for an image like this, it is in my interest to first make sure any changed elements are plotted out perfectly in the thumb, and then to draw the entire image at one time. I would complete one cover, and then weeks later draw the next one down the line. Forgetting whatever I had done and trying to match up special effects. Terrible working process. To make matters worse, my computer died near the end...

Because of the time frame and the multiple computers it spread out on, I don't have all the correct images in one place. This is pieced together with slightly out of sync jpegs so you can find some areas that are screwed up. I'm pretty sure I went through and fixed everything at some point to look perfect, or near perfect, if I find those files I reupload but in the meantime this one's probably 90%.

What a blast though! All those

designs were so much fun to draw. I think he knocked it out of the park.

Oh yeah, did you guys notice Cheese? Out of all these heroes, he's actually the one who is about to take Eggman down.

8malkuthvendetta8 Featured By Owner 5 days ago

As Sonic would say; "This is way past cool!"

superaustin15 Featured By Owner Apr 22, 2015

AWESOME i have these Comics I Love The Sonic Comics its my fave Comic Series

Blackwind06 Featured By Owner Dec 14, 2014 Student Traditional Artist

it was a cool cover for four comics too bad the comic themselves are no fun anymore

BenBates Featured By Owner Dec 15, 2014 Professional

Yeah, I'm with ya. I really enjoyed the first 25 issues or so, back when it was a laugh and didn't take itself so seriously, but its all been downhill ever since.

Blackwind06 Featured By Owner Dec 15, 2014 Student Traditional Artist

yeah and even the sonic universe is starting to get boring

pkstarstorm1up Featured By Owner Dec 19, 2014

I'm just angry about the "reboot".

Blackwind06 Featured By Owner Dec 19, 2014 Student Traditional Artist

Yeah same here the storyline and artwork is so cheesy

pkstarstorm1up Featured By Owner Dec 19, 2014

I'm angry because they think they can just erase people from existence and expect the fans and remaining characters to go on like everything's alright without them. That's scumbagish.

Scarface271 Featured By Owner Edited Dec 31, 2014

Well to be fair, that happened because of a Lawsuit. The characters who are gone can never be referenced again because of legal bullcrap that happened with Ken Penders.

pkstarstorm1up Featured By Owner Dec 31, 2014

That doesn't matter to me. I understand they can't bring those characters back because of that stupid lawsuit but there are other ways they could go about it without wiping them from existence and then expecting the remaining characters who DO remember (and the readers for that matter) to just be like oh well it's alright that their souls pretty much don't exist now. It's fine for us to go on with our lives without caring that such an injustice happened. They could have easily just written that said characters were off in another country helping to recruit more people for their cause and then just left them doing that indefinitely. At least then they'd still exist...

Blackwind06 Featured By Owner Dec 19, 2014 Student Traditional Artist

You got that right

sonicboom44 Featured By Owner Dec 5, 2014 Hobbyist Artist

This is amazing and the comics are fun to read too.

MeowsScourgeARTZ152 Featured By Owner Nov 12, 2014 General Artist

Eggman: Evil Hug?!

aidanckelly Featured By Owner Nov 2, 2014 Student General Artist

It looks like Cheese is the one shooting the lasers.

soundestguitar Featured By Owner Oct 27, 2014

So awesome!

WildKnight215 Featured By Owner Sep 13, 2014

My God...that Blue Furred douche is everywhere.

HeartinaThePony Featured By Owner Aug 14, 2014 Hobbyist Digital Artist

WOW!!

Catchintherift Featured By Owner May 24, 2014 Student Filmographer

Amazing work Ben as always. Absolutely love this set of comic covers. It is really cool to see it as one panel.

Dark-Coco Featured By Owner May 14, 2014

This is so amazing!

I can see you put in a lot of time to work on this, and it looks wonderful! Great job!

TechnorganicSoul Featured By Owner Mar 15, 2014 Hobbyist General Artist

Awesome!

Zeo-Fawx Featured By Owner Mar 12, 2014

One of the best multi covers I've seen. And unlike some of my friends, I'm ok with the new designs. I especially like how Sally kept the energy blades. And love Nicole's new style. I look to the reboot with hope. Thank you for your amazing designs.

JupiterTheHedgehog22 Featured By Owner Mar 1, 2014 Hobbyist Digital Artist

sooooooo cooolll! insta-fav!

cresentsky Featured By Owner Mar 1, 2014 Student Traditional Artist

Very awesome.

deiviz23 Featured By Owner Mar 1, 2014 Student General Artist

HOLLY FREAKING S****!!! O.o

wow.... now thats is what i call war XD

darknessthede-wolf Featured By Owner Feb 28, 2014

this is so awesome *U* *U* *U* *U* wow just wow I don't have words to describe this deviation its so amazing!!!! TUT

missael111796 Featured By Owner Feb 28, 2014

Only Sonic can be on all the covers at once.

tweetysweet Featured By Owner Feb 28, 2014

jkhdnahx sdqz WHOAAAA!

It's incredible!

I've never read one of these comics, since they don't sell them where I live (Stupid Chile, we're not cool), but surely I want to read one now!

Marco-the-Scorpion Featured By Owner Feb 25, 2014 Hobbyist Artist

I have all those covers!!!

EPIC!!!<?xml:namespace prefix = da /> Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap Clap

Spicy-karrotz Featured By Owner Jan 28, 2014 Student General Artist

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand favorite for all time.

ShadowEspioFan1 Featured By Owner Jan 27, 2014 Student General Artist

Love it Archie rocks and i love your art benbates

ShadowtailsDerol Featured By Owner Jan 17, 2014 Hobbyist Artist

Better from the book, why? Because thats the full image

in one part.

Starcoyote234 Featured By Owner Jan 2, 2014 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

This is absolutely awesome, good job on this! Lol yeah, I see Cheese! That would make good showdown, wouldn't it? Cheese the Chao vs Eggman... Keep up the good work!

Secret-Keeper00001 Featured By Owner Dec 11, 2013

Great collection of all the covers for Sonic Issues #253-256 and a great picture they all make of "The Count Down to Chaos" event! DR. Egg-Man really messed things up for good this time when he interfered with Super Sonic's Chaos Control attempt to reverse the effects of Genesis Wave! Sure there did come some good, like Sally not being a killer robot anymore, Antoine not in a coma anymore, Rotor back in action without relying on a nanite battle suit for correcting his back injury from Knot Hole's destruction, Knot Hole's still standing, King Maximillian is King again, happy, friendly and healthy again, Muttski is now a walking on 2 hind legs and talking Mobian and Uncle Chuck's apprentice, they have a flying "Sky Patrol" fortress of their own to fight the Death-Egg 0.2, that creepy Tails Doll Monsters been beaten and Ixis Nagus isn't king anymore, plus Antoine, Rotor and Nicole's new looks are great! Sadly however purple filled energy generating earthquakes are ripping Mobius apart, Bunnie is back in action, that's good, but now she's a cyborg again, just when Nagus's crystal magic gave her flesh, blood, fur and bone arm and legs back, she could've worn a nanite suit like Rotor, no more Team Freedom, possibly no more Secret Freedom Fighters, that means no more Silver trying to change history and save his future, no more Shard, really liked him and he had feelings for Nicole, Elias won't become king again by beating/expose Nagus for who and what he is and what about his mother, wife and stepdaughter,the people won't apologize too and take Nicole back, no Krudzu plant to make an roboticization antibody that they could really use since the roboticizer works again, no more nanite city to give Nicole's holographic form the ability to walk around and live with the people meaning she's reduced to that little handheld form again, all of Knuckles people maybe stuck in the Twilight Cage forever now(including his family, Constable Remington, red-hot bad girl Lien-Da and her echidna Dark Egg Legion, his soul mate Julie-Su and Charmy's wife Saffron)because of seeking revenge for what echidna scientists did to his people generations ago Thrash the Tasmanian Devil, Mighty may never be reunited with his little sister Till/Matilda now, same thing with Bunnie and her uncle, happy Sally's back but I don't like her new look, no more Dark Egg Legions(like Bill Platypus, still a Downunda Freedom Fighter, Bunnie's uncle Beauregard and Mighty's little sister Tilly/Matilda who much better & nicer then the Sand Blaster Renegades, no chance of rescuing CMD. Hugo Brass and his Paladin team from the Iron Queen and her not finding out her Snively is really a infiltrator), no Monkey Khan fulfilling his prophecy, no end to the ninja "Clan Wars", no more stories about the Yagyu, Gossamer or my favorite Shinobi Clan especially taking the Raiju Clan down, no more Iron King(if he survived being blown by the Fan of Fen Xing) and what happened to Geoffrey ST. John and Hershey and who knows what else!?

YgvantheShaper Featured By Owner Jan 9, 2014 Student Traditional Artist

Huh?

Okay I've never read the Atchie series, and I've just gotten the means to and gotten to issue 14 but I do know some of the important bits.

Like, I though Genesis Wave rebooted the series? I though they were going to start over from a new beginning? Isn't that why The characters look almost completely different?

And yes, I agree. The batched Sally's design and hopefully with make it less..."smooth" later on.

Secret-Keeper00001 Featured By Owner Dec 11, 2013

Also, what happened to Diesel the Biker Bear the Grandmaster of the Efrika Dark Egg Legion chapter and Akhult the Killer Whale leading the pod of Orcas that comprise the .D.E.L. in the arctic? New Egg Army Egg Bosses Axel the Water Buffalo and Tundra the Walrus are good new villains that would've made great Kommisar's(2nd in commands)!

Secret-Keeper00001 Featured By Owner Dec 11, 2013

Also, if Knuckles and Julie-Su don't get back together that means no Lara-Su or Jani-Ca, no Mobius: 30 yeas Later of Dark Mobius story sequels!

Starcoyote234 Featured By Owner Jan 2, 2014 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

Sorta like "Back to the Future," eh? Now, that would be so cool... But yeah, I agree with you. I would love to see 30 Years Later: Dark Mobius sequels!

WolfmanHanan Featured By Owner Nov 29, 2013 Student

This is really awesome. I love the new redesigns for the characters, especially Nicole, Sal, and Bunnie. Best redesigns ever!

I'm glad that they are rebooting the comic series with the Genesis Wave, they've been losing some fans recently. I'm also happy that they make some elements from the official Sonic video games canon in this. I really hope Nicole and Tails become boyfriend and girlfriend in this reboot. Sonic and Sally being togeter are great, but it's Tails and Nicole that need to be together in this. Anyway, this is really awesome, I can't wait to see how this would go later on.

LighttheChao Featured By Owner Nov 20, 2013 Student Digital Artist

Aww man! I can't wait to get the Bunnie issue! I feel bad she's half robot, half Mobian, but at least she's back in action(making her happier than the Bunnie we last left off with prior to the Genesis Wave

BlueBlur62391 Featured By Owner Nov 15, 2013

Just go with it. That jacket was old-school anyways.

GabrielFrag Featured By Owner Nov 15, 2013 Hobbyist Artist

awesome work dude, just one tiny question though.

Whats up with Antione's wardrobe choice?

stephan-zx Featured By Owner Nov 14, 2013 Hobbyist Filmographer

I bet if I give you a challenge to draw one of my characters you would give it a go, so would you please response

stephan-zx Featured By Owner Nov 14, 2013 Hobbyist Filmographer

I'm a fan of your work, i love how you drew the story in part 9 to 12 of the sonic/mega man crossover

ZephraStar Featured By Owner Nov 6, 2013 Student General Artist

I absolutely LOVE Sally, NICOLE, and especially Bunnie (she's one of my all-time favorites)'s re-designs!! They look amazing, and the way you draw them is outstanding.

I really look up to you, hopefully someday I'll be able to draw Sonic characters as good as you can! Keep it up, Mr. Bates!

Darkwings45 Featured By Owner Oct 30, 2013

How do you think the series will end? More importantly, do you think Mobius will get back to the way it was before the second Genesis Wave?

PrincessOfLior Featured By Owner Oct 27, 2013

I don't know why I hate Antoine so much. ugh.

but great art! it should have been alittle more glorious for Tails though, I figure.

BatboyEXE Featured By Owner Oct 22, 2013

honestly...I like all the redesigns except for chucks and Rotors (chuck looks a bit too young to me and I'm indifferent to Rotors.) and there's no point in complaining about the reboot until I know it's permanent or not. (here's hoping, I want to see the stories from the last universe resolved atleast)