Sonic The Hedgehog: End Game

"So yeah, what else can I really say? The story is a mess. The plot points are contrived and forced, the characters act stupid in order to let things happen, the heroes are able to succeed more by coincidence and storytelling convenience than anything genuine, the writing is just plain bad and heavily derivative of an outside source, and in the end, none of it really mattered because nothing the heroes did really mattered when everything is looked at from a distance. There are a few moments that are genuinely cool, and the fight scene between Sonic and Robotnik is still my favorite fight, bar none. But that isn’t enough to salvage it. That isn’t enough to forgive all the horrible, glaring problems with the story, pacing and execution of this thing."

- Robotnik-mun on End Game.

"I really don’t get how people STILL defend that story. Like, it fundamentally fails on every level as not just a story, but specifically a conclusion to Archie Sonic."

- Nuttyrabbit on Endgame.

Sonic The Hedgehog issues 47-50 comprise the Endgame story arc, a four parter (technically five, as #46 is integral to understanding the plot) plotted out by Ken Penders. The story of this arc concerns the final battle between the Freedom Fighters and Dr. Robotnik, and would mark big changes to the comic as it came out. This arc, though receiving some praise at release, has met an increasingly negative reception as time went on, especially after a general backlash against Penders himself.

Plot
On a mission in Robotropolis, Princess Sally Acorn, leader of the Freedom Fighters, is seemingly killed by Sonic The Hedgehog. Sonic, who swears he's innocent, soon finds himself on the run as Dr. Robotnik prepares his final scheme.

Why This Story Arc Should be Erased by the Ultimate Annihilator

 * 1) The concept, while interesting on paper, has been done before, and everyone except Uncle Chuck almost immediately believes that Sonic is guilty from cutting the rope that Sally was holding and fell to her death, even though they've dealt with Doppelgangers before. While Antoine and Geoffrey could be hand waved away as letting their grudges against Sonic cloud their judgement, that still doesn't explain why Bunnie and Tails believe Sonic is guilty.
 * 2) A lot of the characters are portrayed and/or handled poorly.
 * 3) *Sonic, who was thought to have mistakenly cut the rope that caused Sally to fall to the ground to her death, barely mourns her at all during the story, and the only time he seems to do so happens before it's revealed she's not really dead.
 * 4) *Geoffrey St. John has no purpose other than to serve as a red herring and an antagonist for Sonic, whom he is to blame for the death of his beloved Sally.
 * 5) *Drago of the Wolf Pack is just a generic traitor stereotype with zero depth or backstory, and the reveal that he's the real traitor can be seen coming a mile away. The scene of him hitting Hershey serves zero purpose except as another unsubtle reminder that he's one of the the bad guys.
 * 6) *The Wolf Pack shows up with no backstory, despite everyone clearly having met before. Unless you watched "Cry of the Wolf" from Sonic Satam, you'll have no idea who they are or why everyone knows them.
 * 7) *Hershey has no real personality and exists largely to be mistreated by Drago. The reveal that she was actually impersonating Sonic and unwittingly responsible for Sally's death is given no foreshadowing, as she basically shows up out of nowhere soon after it happens.
 * 8) *None of the Freedom Fighters except for Sonic and Dulcy get to do anything noteworthy.
 * 9) *Sally is handled the worst. The main female lead of the comic, and the second most important person besides Sonic himself... and she's anticlimactically thrown off a building in a scene that exists solely to justify Sonic "cutting loose". Though "Stuffed into the Fridge" is an overused complaint, it really applies here. The fact that her death was intended to be permanent, even after it was clear it was not going to be the end of the comic, makes it even worse.
 * 10) Terrible and we mean terrible pacing, giving the reader little time to absorb plot points.
 * 11) Most of the plot twists at the end are explained away by exposition, which is really lazy.
 * 12) The Ultimate Annihilator, a generic superweapon that utterly erases anything it targets, shows up out of nowhere with no explanation as to where it was.
 * 13) As tumblr user, Robotik-mun pointed out, a lot of the story elements seem to have been taken from the 90's film version of The Fugitive. This is especially apparent in part 2: Sonic The Fugitive, which feels like a total rehash of said film.
 * 14) The reveal Drago tricked Hershey into killing Sally by having her wear a Sonic suit was one of the worst plot twists in the comic, as it was poorly foreshadowed (see WTSAS #2.5) and raised several plot holes:
 * 15) *Drago gave Hershey what is implied to be a lifelike suit of Sonic, and she never suspects a thing.
 * 16) *She climbs a fairly large building in Robotropolis, despite being some random civilian with no known training, with no explanation for what she thought she was doing.
 * 17) *It's explained that the suit has a special visor that let her see Sally as Snively... but no explanation is given for why she didn't hear Sally.
 * 18) *Why would Robotnik pay off a member of an ally to the Freedom Fighters when he can make a lifelike robotic duplicate of Sonic, especially since one of the steps of his plan involves a robot duplicate of King Acorn?
 * 19) Hershey beating up Drago isn't satisfying, since there's little buildup to it happening, and she basically blows off all the bad things he did to her as if they were nothing.
 * 20) *Not helping matters is that in the original version, she just throws a rock at him.
 * 21) The reveal that Robotnik's second in command, Snively reprogrammed the Ultimate Annihilator to only target Robotnik is poorly explained, and basically renders most of the drama meaningless since Knothole was never in any actual danger.
 * 22) Sally's survival is poorly explained, especially in the original version of #50.
 * 23) The death of Robotnik was a terrible idea, as it robs the comic of it's main villain, and a big chunk of the series struggled to find a replacement until his roboticized self became Dr Eggman for the modern era.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The artwork is very good, especially Patrick Spaziante's work.
 * 2) Issue #50 got a director's cut from issue 6 of Sonic Super Special that restored lost scenes.
 * 3) We get some backstory on Robotnik and his motivations.
 * 4) The story had a decent ending, and could have been a decent ending to the entire series.