Kazhnuz

TBH, blockbuster design doesn't really have to be entirely grounded in biological reality. Sure, there are some changes to do and I don't think that just reusing the plastic-y design of the last games would work. But, I feel that here, it get to an uncanny valley where it just doesn't look good. I think it's not just because of the muscle to be frank, but the combination of the muscle and the plainess of just them being blue hairy legs, basically… heck, with the lacks of socks, it's in the same time more (with the muscle, and details on the shoes) and less (with the lack of big color distinction that the original design have thanks to the socks and the shoes design). And for me it sucks especially because several days before, Detective Pikachu managed do make works being similar to the original design and being "realistic enough" way better (and it's also why I don't really think that blockbusters don't really need "biological realism" to be honest). And TBH, Detective Pikachu was a reason that made me more optimistic for this project, so I'm a bit disappointed about all this xD For the shoes, I'm pretty surprised to be frank. I don't understand why the shoes are so bland when they could have been inspired by all the cool shoes design that exists in the Sonic saga. I mean, the famous SOAP shoes (and I mean, who would have been surprised about a product placement ?), or shoes more like Riders'. Here they are kinda… plain. And that's why what we have seen make me afraid of the final product, the mixt between plainess and realism create on it some kind of uncanny valley.

Yep, I think it's more "fantastic creature", a bit like the Fairy type in Pokemon.

That seems a bit bad (not that a catastrophe though) for the moment, but I'm not surprised. Maybe that the fully reveal design will look better, but I'm not holding my hopes. The problem with this design (that they change too much the design philosophy and in a clunky way), is that it's adding up to a pile of "is this really a Sonic movie", like the buddy cop idea, the lack of other characters than Sonic & Eggman, etc. For the moment it seems to be a movie that haven't been really made with its base franchise in mind like are the MCU movies… and I'm hope it's not worse : a movie that doesn't really trust the universe/IP it adapt (like are some movies like DB Evolution). That's why I'm mostly not really impatient of this movie : it doesn't look for the moment really Sonic adapted to Blockbuster standard, but a random movie that add some elements of the saga. And I'm a bit tired that many franchise get a movie these days that seems to believe at least in their original universe, but not Sonic. I've seen nothing for the moment that is really at least a bit of the MCU or Detective Pikachu standard in that respect for me. I'm hoping that it'll get later with trailers and stuff, though. Maybe the trailer will dismiss these fear, but for the moment, I don't feel that it seems good. Well, wait and see. TBH, as at worst it'll be just yet another one bad videogame movies, so I'm not really that afraid, though.

So seems that Starline is really inspired by Finitevus and Zachary. That's really awesome. About what he would "win" by restoring Eggman, I'm not sure that he really want to win anything. I see two big possibility, especially - Either he is interested by Eggman directly, but more like he is interested with how much trouble a simple man can bring, how he can always get back to do more stuff, etc. - Either he is interested by "anomy/chaos", and likes when stuff degenerate, and that see Egman as the best to bring that kind of things. In both case, I think he isn't really interested by personal gain, and that's the vibes of him being inspired by Finitevus gives to me. Someone that is a trouble-bringer but doesn't search to gain anything.

Having them again could be fun, and I would be really happy to see them do more Sonic. But I'm interested here by what I'm seeing in this new writer, because I feel he have a lot of potential, especially if he get more his own style with times. I'm caring about what we have here : we have a new writer interested by working with IDW for IDWSonic (and I found he had some pretty interesting style), I'm interested to see how he could evolve (and I'm laughing about some anti-Flynn creating a false rivality between Flynn and him).

And seems that not every message isn't kinda obvious 😛 More seriously, it was implied that getting "good" new writers is good, it seemed kinda obvious to me xD And I think that new ideas, new visions are important for long stories like Sonic. And I think that having someone next to Flynn, with some difference in the vision, could give more peps to the story. Here, the most "funky" style would complement well how much Flynn is dedicated to "how the character would act" (sometimes a bit too much), even if I would love someone with a bit of the "oldschool sci-fi style" too, like Bollers, etc.

It was pretty fun. Not the most interesting issue ever with its lack of story… I'm a bit disappointing about the lack of the otherworld-y thing. At least it was pretty fun too see, and fully dynamic. I think that it would be nice to see him in more "serious" stories, he really have a lot of fun in his writing. He really could be an interesting second writer if we get more side-stories to the main comic-book. If it works well, it might make them do more side-comics. I'm happy when we get new writers, because it feel a bit fresher (even if the best writers was for me Aleah Baker, she made most of the best Sonic stories for me).

I think that believing that they actually replace multiple-characters, design-wise, is a misconception. And I think that most proposition of replacing wisps by other character is often clunky. I agree more that that they are related to box items… but kinda different in one big way. Whereas the box items give you a passive power-up that auto-activate, wisps gives you an "active" one that is activated. That's why I think that they should be complementary. Box Items to buff you up, Wisps to do some things. (I'm talking about the basic use, Wispons are a completely different use, gameplay-wise). And that's where the Wisps should be changed in one way : you should be more free to play with the concept. Most often, the games give you a wisps as they give you a stage gimmick. You are here, you must do the thing to advance. I think that they should encourage the player to "play" more with the wisps, by keeping a wisps and reusing it later, by being able to experiment with them, etc. And often making less obvious where the wisps could be useful. In Sonic Forces, by using them to bypass area, they made both a mistake (in that it's sometimes completely OP) and a better idea, with using really the wisps to get alternate path and as that a reward (if we can say that making a too short game even shorter and easier is a reward). I think that in a more "open" Sonic games, they should put them in place where their use isn't always obvious, for instance. I kinda like the wisps being a reward for fighting a "big" ennemy, for instance. Another possibility would be to hide them, etc. I see basically two possibility : making getting them a reward, or making using them well a reward. Also, some of the most gimmicky ones could be completely dropped, like the rythm… except as a wispon if they reuse them, because it could be a pretty cool one. I actually would love if all wisps got a wispons, some of them could be pretty awesome (I can picture a giant claw for the frenzy wisp). Also, another thing I'm happy is that Forces dropped the transformation part and just used directly the power. I'm not fond of the appearance that Sonic take when he is transformed. For me, the narrative problem isn't that much a problem, at least not really more than anytime that the ST reused a supposedly one-game component… which is basically ever. Not explaining in game… is a bit of a shame, but kinda understandable : it's such a secondary element that it would be a waste of narrative game, in games that have already too much of it. Secondary pieces of media like mobile or comics are a good way to tackle that, imho. They also don't have to be too much involved in the actual story, except if they get a way to have secondary stories (with "dumb side-mission" with dialogs boxes, or stupid stuff like that), because it would also be a waste of narrative space for me. Better focus on the actual story, especially with how much they need to use it better with how much it's sparse… Basically, I prefer them like they are now, for narration. As some kind of cute powerup that doesn't take too much narrative space. It's mostly their gameplay use that I would improve.

As Sonic Fan J says, we don't have to change the existing character to add characters like the FF or Sticks… And I think that it's true for most of the other canon character, actually, as long as their "basic concept" is quite simple, basically if we can break down the group or character basic story in a way that we would keep the most important things, but be simple enough. For the FF, it's simple enough. World well suited for them, Knothole Village could be a town where there would be the Town Militia, and it could be a way to play with how disorganized the Animal World seems to be (and have been shown in most stuff using that concept, for instance in Sonic X where the Animal World have been shown most time as pretty wild) and how Eggmans disrupted its tranquility. Same for Sticks. Her basic story is simple enough to be integrated. They could even play more on the "wild" side of Sticks, making that they didn't have many contact with civilisation before Eggman's invasion, and use that as a cause of her paranoia. If the first thing you see of the civilisation is a megalomaniac conqueror, it might be some normal reaction. And what would be fun, would be to play that "game" for any other character of any other continuity XD A game of "how could characters from other canon could be adapted in Sonic IDW or in a game-like world" would be pretty fun, as I think that a lot of characters could be adapted as something that exists somewhere in the world. Some would need just some modifications, other more… But that the kind of thing that would need to be its own topic xD Mmh, I'm not really sure about that first point, especially in this vision of Sonic. The "killing is bad, no matter what" is often a point in kids licences, so I really feel that it would be a possible thing (especially as it wouldn't be really controversial). You are totally true about this vision of Rouge being pretty sensible, though.

Even if I agree with the basic message of "we shouldn't change the character just to add some more", I disagree with one big point : being a villiain doesn't necessarily mean "destroying the world". Theoretically, Team Dark could just be doing some things that are right on their view, but not right for the view of the protagonists. Rouge could steal important things, or do stuff that isn't right for the heroes (without going as far as in Treasure Team Tango issue of endangering the entire Blaze's Dimension). Omega could be attacking someone related to Eggman, without making the distinction (and as Flynn portray him as loving destruction, he could maybe not even care about this distinction) between destroying a bot and destroying a living being. So those part of their character being used doesn't mean that they'll destroy the world or kill everybody for that. I don't agree with changing them, but I don't disagree with showing them as antagonist or even villain, if it's done in an interesting way. Actually, I think that having every story revolving about "protecting the world" is a problem in itself, but that's another subject XD

We don't need Cream, Gemerl and Omega either. We didn't even need most of the character used in this arc. We basically don't really need "any" character, and thinking in term of "big enough cast" is basically nonsensical. It's not a question of size of the cast (except in some extreme measure, like having 10 main character like in Post-SGW, which was its biggest mistakes and why I was more for making the FF a secondary characters group instead of a main one). It's mostly a question of use, and how different characters are used. Different characters fill different niche and different use, and tbh there are many niches that aren't really used, especially in characters that would be supporting characters for specifics roles. It's also a question of which story is written. I could say a lot of story that would be interesting, and where you would need more than your "big enough cast". Many stories of Post-SGW used and needed those "non-canon" characters to advance the story of the main character. For instance the Tails and Bunnie flashback was basically one of the best characterization of the smoll fox, as they were able to use how Sonic inspired Tails as a basis, while showing something that was more than just yet again an interaction between Sonic and Tails (something they did too). To take one example of story that would be useful for IDWSonic, if they wanted to show a story that really showed some of the organization (or the re-organisation) of the Animal World, character that are kinda like the FF and the other groups created by Flynn post-SGW would be useful, as they could serve a Militia of Some Town™ that have to be rebuilt, so would be a basis to make the world evolve. Likewise, if you want to show more stuff about the Human World, having some new characters could be useful. I'm not saying that we need the FF in particular for any that, but that's better if it's not yet again with a character of the main cast, for me, and the niche they could fill is kinda usefull (character that would be more tied to some particular place, and could be used to show some more formal groups, that could work pretty differently than the resistance, that is basically a bunch of more-or-less friends that save the world). And that I prefer when a creator reuse characters instead of creating expy, when they can. And that's the same for many other characters. Many character from different canon could be retooled to be useful. For me it's not really a question just about the FF, but about the legacy of Sonic, and of everything made around, things that often got a lot of passion, even if they weren't always like the games. ( That's basically why I loved Post-SGW Sonic. That was the last attempt of creating a "unified canon" for Sonic, as much as it was possible. Something that used the base of the games to create the world, but that was a big love letter to everything that Sonic was. Sometimes by directly retooling the characters, sometimes by creating expies. It was a "Sonic World", most that everything else we got. There was so much passion about the franchise that I really loved it, even if the use of the Unleashed story wasn't perfect at all. ) . And I will add that many people were happy that Dr. Starline (I'm really afraid to make a typo with his name xD) was that he reminded people of Finitevus. I've seen people talking about it here, on planete-sonic's Discord, on reddit, on TVTropes… So I think that legacy characters have still a place in the heart of many people. It's exactly like the Classic-only character, or when people where happy that Madonna Garnet reminded them of Topaz. They are a part of the culture of the fandom (and of fond memories), so many people would like them to be reused (especially when they could fill some useful niche) So that's why it's not for me a question of "big enough cast". Or if we need any characters. Just a question of stories, and how stuff are used. ( maybe my writing is a bit too dramatic for just a comic about a dumb blue mammal )

Not every character have to follow the "SEGA style" exactly, it would be kinda boring tbh.

I really like this reveal.

Could it or not ? We don't know at which point. Especially when the first work on a author on something isn't often the one where a can the most make it like he want. It might also be that he have to much that he was forced to explain, for instance. Writing is often more complicated than "he just have to make something better". Especially that kind of tie-in (I remember the tie-in to Transformed being pretty bland and uninteresting too), when there are a lot of demands. Maybe they've got a lot of liberty, maybe not at all. And because it could be better, it doesn't mean that jumping to play the same game of "inventing a competition between author" game that some already are trying to play is a good idea, in my opinion. Criticizing the final product though, I haven't any problem with that.

TBH, except the "manual-y" aspect (that we can't really know if it's related to the author or to higher levels), I think it's pretty good. Characters are pretty well understood by the author, he seems to understand that Omega is the best character, so it's cool for me. It looks like it'll be fun stuff when the "explaination" parts will be over. For the moment, I don't see the "it's in another world" aspect mentioned in the preview, and I like the "excentric billionaire" approach of Dodonpa. Honestly it looks like a good amount of fun, if they don't take too much space for the explainations. I would prefer to see this author on a projet related to the main universe to see more of his style, though. Maybe that could be a good way to start a second comic-book xD.