>>94067560>Essentials*#25, especially since it's echoed as the ending of the Archie comic in #290. Great adaptation of Sonic CD.
*Triple Trouble, because it's just goofy and fun.
*Mecha Madness, because it's just stupid fights and pinups with robots.
*#23, because it's my favorite, has a big Jack Kirby sendup, and has a very important backup story.
*Sonic Quest, but only the latter two issues because the first is just unnecessary setup and continuity. It has Sonic in a giant robot fighting Eggman and it's rad.
*Giant Robotno from Sonic Super Special 8, also in the Sonic Specials "Zone Wars" trade. It's drawn like shit, but it's actually a pretty well written story that homages a bunch of Japanese properties.
*The Tails Miniseries. It's just goofy and Manak's art is charming as hell.
*The Knuckles Miniseries. I personally don't like it, but it introduces Enerjak and that's important for later. It also happens to be vague enough that you can pretend Enerjak is way cooler than he actually is.
*The Sally Miniseries. This shit is so fucking bad you have to read it. Like really. It also comes back as a cute easter egg later.
*Icon Part 1 and 2 from #62 and 63, because it's a cute story that matters later.
*Tossed in Space's first two issues, 126 and 127, because they're charming.
*Return to Angel Island, which I believe is 138-141? It's a dedicated satire to everything Ken Penders ever wrote. Way better if you read his garbage stories first. Seriously, it does more with Penders' ideas in four issues than he did in a decade all while mocking them.
Can't really think of any other essentials, but a lot of the first 50 issues are mediocre at worst and there's a few cute ones scattered across 51-159. 51-75 in particular is nowhere near as bad as 80-159 or so.
