Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[Tara]

9 minutes ago, Zaysho said:

I was also amused at Tails meeting Amy for the first time; he's so cute and innocent, wowed at the sight of Amy's Piko-Piko Hammer, as if it's the coolest thing he's ever seen, and it just puts a smile on my face because this is Tails to me. Curious and intelligent for his age, but very much a kid at heart. 

Oh my gosh, I don't know how I forgot about Tails!  He was such a cutie in this story!  That's the Tails I grew up with, and though I don't have any huge problems with current Tails' personality (aside from his portrayal in Shattered Crystal and Rise of Lyric), it's definitely something I'd like to see implemented in the games again.

[Your Vest Friend]

You know, I've seen comments that say that people can see this coming out of the 90's as a genuine classic Sonic story.

With Amy being shown as a legitimate threat instead of a gag fighter? I don't think so. 

[Big Panda]

3 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

You know, I've seen comments that say that people can see this coming out of the 90's as a genuine classic Sonic story.

With Amy being shown as a legitimate threat instead of a gag fighter? I don't think so. 

StC Amy would like a word with you.

[Your Vest Friend]

5 minutes ago, Ernest-Panda said:

StC Amy would like a word with you.

StC Amy is her character twisted for a girl power mandate from the StC team that Sonic Team had zero say in. This is more about it seeming like a legitimate game adventure that could have happened. 

[Tara]

14 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

You know, I've seen comments that say that people can see this coming out of the 90's as a genuine classic Sonic story.

With Amy being shown as a legitimate threat instead of a gag fighter? I don't think so. 

Yeah, I wouldn't go that far by any means.  It definitely has a lot of nostalgia riding on it, but I feel like the writers looked at the 90's Sonic games, examined what made them good, which parts weren't so good, and brought out the former while downplaying  the latter.  Not to mention, the art style is very much rooted in the 2010's era.  So yeah, I agree, it definitely isn't something that would have been made in the 90's, despite capturing a lot of what made that particular era great as far as Sonic goes, but I do think it would have worked tremendously well if it were released in the 90's.

[Big Panda]

40 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

StC Amy is her character twisted for a girl power mandate from the StC team that Sonic Team had zero say in. This is more about it seeming like a legitimate game adventure that could have happened. 

To be fair, Sega Amy didn't really HAVE a characterization pre-Adventure. The only Amy's with personality were Archie Amy and StC Amy.

Ergo, you could say this was yet another homage to the days when licensed products had to guess at Amy's personality.

[Your Vest Friend]

8 minutes ago, Ernest-Panda said:

To be fair, Sega Amy didn't really HAVE a characterization pre-Adventure. The only Amy's with personality were Archie Amy and StC Amy.

Ergo, you could say this was yet another homage to the days when licensed products had to guess at Amy's personality.

She had a personality, alright. Damsel absolutely obsessed with the hero is hard to work with, but there wasn't any guesswork to it. 

[Big Panda]

1 minute ago, VEDJ-F said:

She had a personality, alright. Damsel absolutely obsessed with the hero is hard to work with, but there wasn't any guesswork to it. 

A damsel who's since learned to defend herself (note how this is where her hammer first appears).

[Sean]

I like this Amy. She's not an obnoxious nutjob that Heroes (and onwards) makes her out to be; less "I WANT TO MARRY YOU" and more "I want to travel and do fun stuff with you!" It's actually adorable rather than annoying.

It's more or less the same characterization she has in the modern comics, too. Flynn handles her crush on Sonic extremely nicely.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I got my issue and I have to say, I was a lot more impressed with it than I expected. Although I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the hype towards it felt overblown, so I'm not particularly glowing about it.

Let me start with the characters, mainly Eggman, Knuckles, and Amy. These three have been flanderized in their appearances (mainly Knuckles) or not given any justice as characters (Eggman and Amy). Now with Flynn writing them, I expected nothing short of competence in writing them and boy does he do so willth flying colors. And people wonder why many want him in charge of the official games when it comes to storytelling. Knuckles is portrayed as gullible, yet well meaning despite making a really dumb move - one with great believability, if simplistic, reasons and narrative justification for why he did as well as his involvement without coming off as mind-numbingly stupid. Amy is still fangirlish, but Flynn doesn't let that get in the way of her involvement. And for all his eccentricities and silliness, Eggman is a capable threat to the heroes even if he gets embarrassingly defeated. He's not as powerful a threat as his main Archie counterpart, but that's to be expected since he doesn't have an empire with hencemen and multiple footholds around the world.

I felt the dialogue/characterizations, events, and action of the characters were the strongest aspect of this issue. Sonic is cocky as hell, but the story is never above giving his arrogance a painful kick in the ass to bring him down a peg. The dialogue is very entertaining when they make quips, but they always make sure to get to the point of what they're doing instead of wasting time joking about it - the jokes and humor in itself is connected to the events and conflict, such as Sonic calling out Knucklehead's dumb move of trusting Eggman again.

Another thing of note was the pacing. While much too quick for my liking, it nonetheless fulfills its setups and delivers in it middle act without felling like it missed opportunities as it ended on a cliffhanger. The fact that I can only find fault in its speed really tells you that there's very little wrong here, and if anything it's a testament that shows Flynn can make a decent story when no one fucks with his appoved plans - this just makes arcs like Worlds Unite that much more irritating in hindsight that led to his rushing of the SWC arc. That isn't to say he doesn't need a few restrictions (older moments like his handling of romance between characters, arcs taking too long to conclude, as well as his early handling of Sally in the past), but given what I've seen, this is a solid piece of work here.

It's a great side issue after the fatigue we've been getting in the main comic. I still prefer the main comics given their material and diverse set of characters of various conflicting sides (as well as keeping and reviving older non-game characters), but this issue stands very strong in itself, and I'm eager to see more.

[Your Vest Friend]

Just now, Ernest-Panda said:

A damsel who's since learned to defend herself (note how this is where her hammer first appears).

...What's this got to do with how SEGA characterised her in the 90s? I thought that was the point we were debating.

[Big Panda]

3 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

...What's this got to do with how SEGA characterised her in the 90s? I thought that was the point we were debating.

In my mind, the characterization you were describing really wasn't that much of a characterization to begin with.

She appeared to be a damsel in Sonic CD yes. But was that *really* what she was? Was she a genuine damsel in destress who couldn't defend herself in any way, or was she just unarmed...?

[Soniman]

27 minutes ago, Sean said:

I like this Amy. She's not an obnoxious nutjob that Heroes (and onwards) makes her out to be; less "I WANT TO MARRY YOU" and more "I want to travel and do fun stuff with you!" It's actually adorable rather than annoying.

It's more or less the same characterization she has in the modern comics, too. Flynn handles her crush on Sonic extremely nicely.

Honestly I feel like how great Archie Amy is isnt mentioned enough, easily my favorite interpretation of the character, Ian handles her extremely well. One of the best moments of that is these panels (pre reebot but its consistent with her current chearacterization)

 

[Your Vest Friend]

Pretty sure she was, given the other Japanese media around at the time and the fact that unfortunate characterisations like that are not above Sonic Team (heck, they're not above Nintendo), since CD was her big appearance.

Well...I guess you can add one more to the old characterisation. Problem is that one more trait is "immature". Her moveset in Sonic the Fighters (including the very hammer touted as a symbol of her maturity in Mega Drive, ironically) pushed the fact she had a childish mindset, and that's not helped by the car from the Sonic Drift series looking like a character from a pre-school show. 

[Marcello]

Well, she was 8. Why shouldn't she be childish?

[Dejimon11]

Knock Knock it's Knuckles....oh and Amy

 

[Big Panda]

Has that bird seriously been stranded down there since Worlds Unite...?

[FriendBot]

I already love how Knux and Amy interact with each other already, me thinks I'm going to enjoy Shattered a lot!

[DabigRG]

6 minutes ago, Soni said:

I already love how Knux and Amy interact with each other already, me thinks I'm going to enjoy Shattered a lot!

Same here. Although, I can't help but question when exactly this issue will take place?

[Big Panda]

Am I missing something or do those pages have a pretty big continuity error?

That crater with the shard was in Green Hill Zone at the beginning of Worlds Unite (in case you hadn't caught on, it's the same one that Sonic found at the beginning of the story, with the same stranded bird and everything), and then they go straight to Mobotropolis.

...but Green Hill and Mobotropolis are on different islands.

[DabigRG]

4 minutes ago, Ernest-Panda said:

Am I missing something or do those pages have a pretty big continuity error?

That crater with the shard was in Green Hill Zone at the beginning of Worlds Unite (in case you hadn't caught on, it's the same one that Sonic found at the beginning of the story, with the same stranded bird and everything), and then they go straight to Mobotropolis.

...but Green Hill and Mobotropolis are on different islands.

I was gonna say it wasn't Green Hill at first, until I looked into the background....

[Big Panda]

If it wasn't GHZ it'd still be a continuity error since the crater clearly WAS in GHZ in WU.

EDIT: also the shard was embedded in the wall in WU, not in a nest thing.

[Toby]

I'm going to say it's the Royal Hills Zone we heard about in Bunnie's flashback. Neither Worlds Unite #1 or the Battle special actually say it's Green Hill Zone. Between three different artists it's been drawn out differently though, so I don't think it's quite a continuity error so much as artistic differences.

 

I don't have a twitter, maybe someone could ask Ian if it's supposed to be Green Hills, Emerald Hills, or Royal Hills so we'll know for sure?

[Jango]

I bought a digital copy of the Sonic Mega Drive #1 this morning and had a blast with it.

What I loved: <3
 

Spoiler

THE ART STYLE.

Characterization was spot on. The dialogues were never too shallow or "hur dur insert joke here" shit we got in the Boom games. Everyone felt super natural, exactly how I've always imagined their personalities to be like back in the 90's.

The story follows Sonic 3 & Knuckles events, and acknowledge it. I like the fact that Tails doesn't know who Amy is.

Lots of great inside jokes, like Knuckles saying that if the Master Emerald breaks, gather the pieces would be impossible.

Original zones with badniks and gimmicks. It truly made it feel like a game.

What I didn't loved:

I think everyone agrees that... it's too damn short!

 

And one more thing: THIS NEEDS TO BE A GAME ASAP.

[Irish David]

I picked up an electronic copy (my paper copy is on the way) of Sonic: Mega Drive and I must say, I really really enjoyed it. The drawing, the colours, the story, the level of detail on each page of the zones were brilliant. Credit to Ian Flynn, Tyson Hesse, Matt Herms and the crew for a super, well put together comic. I am very much looking forward to reading The Next Level