Reviewing Every Issue of Archie Sonic: #Issue 14
In this issue, Tails reveals his real name...I guess.
Our first story, Tails' Taste of Power sees Tails eat a fruit from the wisdom tree after he's made to look after a greenhouse, giving him super intelligence. I'll be honest, I don't hate the setup behind this, mainly because it's something different than Robotnik attacking and the good guys reacting. It's neat.
However, there's just one small problem, and it's that Tails actually is supposed to be a genius according to Sega. Therefore, the setup falls apart completely.
After Tails saves Sally and Bunnie, he gets an ego and declares himself as the leader of the freedom fighters over Sonic, even though I thought Sally was supposed to be the leader. Tails eventually gets the idea to fight Robotnik, but it turns out that the intelligence fruit lasts for only 24 hours, so Sonic has to save Tails by threatening to suicide bomb Robotnik.
The story ends with Tails pranking Antoine because we haven't bullied Antoine enough I guess. There were some alright jokes in here like Tails talking so much that he crowds people out of the panel, and Robotnik saying that the last person to break into his base was an insurance salesman. There's also something darkly hilarious about Sonic saving the day by threatening to suicide bomb Robotnik, but Tails was pretty annoying here.
The next story is uh…a do-it-yourself story?
Admittedly I don't have too much to say about this one, aside from how it's very what you would expect. You write your own dialogue, you write your own sound effects, you make a plot basically. Apparently, this was for a contest where the winner gets subscriptions for the comics and their stories would be printed in a future issue. I can't really recall who won this contest, nor can I find any information who did.
I'd share what I did but I did a video about it already.
I honestly don't think I can rank this story, because it's more of an activity than a story. Granted, it is kind of fun that this is a thing, because I do love this sort of thing, but I can't reasonably rank it.
Okay, this next story is called Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and I want you guys to guess what the first image of this story is.
Do I even need to say why this is so shocking?
The story is really simple. Robotnik’s scheme of the day sees him target Sally and Bunnie because he thinks they’re weak, and he traps them with a shopping mall because girls so obviously love to shop, so he can lure the others out. However, because Bunnie is cool as hell and Sally can apparently fight now even though this is the first time she’s seen fighting, they beat Robotnik and get away, saying that girls can do anything.
This story is going to be a weird one to rank, mainly because it’s very, very on the nose social commentary, and I’m not someone who talks about social commentary. Yes, I've been fairly vocal about calling out the treatment Sally gets, being forced to do stereotypically girly things, but regardless I am the…second to last guy who should be talking about this sort of thing. So, to be fair to this story, I’m going to judge it based on how it was as a story of its time.
As a story, it’s not good, it’s very plain and not that funny. Unless you find the image of Robotnik playing with dolls and the extremely blunt sexism funny, I don't find it that amusing.
That being said, I can’t exactly hate the message.
Remember, this came out in the nineties, where comics were very heavily skewed towards boys, you didn’t really get a whole lot of representation of this kind back then. It’s very blunt and not subtle in the slightest, but that’s kind of what I expect from this comic at this point. Literally my favorite part of the comic so far is Robotnik, and he’s about as subtle as someone trying to rob a bank with a grenade launcher. That said, I’ll give the writers credit for at least trying to do this, even if it’s very on the nose.
…yes, I know I’m giving credit to Ken Penders of all people for this sort of thing, and yes, I am aware that later down the line I’m going to heavily doubt he even knows how to write women. Still, credit where credit is due, it’s not as bad as it COULD'VE been.
This issue was a weird one. The tails story had some decent jokes but it was offset by smart tails being annoying. The Do it Yourself story was kind of fun but I can’t rank it, and the Sally and Bunnie story was weird, but had a nice message.
I guess I'd say it's a fine issue overall.
Tails' Taste of Power - 4/10
Do-It-Yourself - N/A (gets a six for the fun factor i guess)
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - 4/10
Issue #14 - 5/10
Posted Apr 2, 2026, 10:49 PM UTC