Is the Archie version of Sonic less capable than others in the comics?

[ShadowSJG]

When I read Archie Sonic, I tend to notice how a lot of times it seems to me that Sonic takes quite a lot a hits in some of his battles ranging to even mere grunts sometimes and seems like he has issues with them. Also for example when he fights Scourge, he seems to be an underdog. I'm not sure if his feats can be comparable to those of Knuckles, Shadow, and Silver. So is Archie Sonic weaker or less capable?

[MetalSkulkBane]

Of course he is, but for a good reasons.

In games you play as Sonic, number of hits depend on you, Stories are much more streamlined, since YOU want to be the one to beat Eggman, not watch computer controlling Tails do it for you.

In Archie, Sonic has a large team and they need to be somewhat useful. Besides, if you beat boss in game without taking a hit, it's fun. If Sonic won easily in comic that would be boring.

Also, if you count gameplay, then Sonic in games is way weaker. During Shatter World crisis Sonic died exactly zero times, which is way less than I died playing Unleashed (and lets face it, who beat all Sonic games not dying once).

EDIT: But if you mean "Weaker then other characters", then just look at Shadow Before Sonic Universe came out, Shadow was basically punching bag/worf for Flynn: beat by Scourge, Adam, Enerjack and Super Scourge. Blaze got captured twice in her own story arc. Knuckles was once captured by normal DEL soldiers. Flynn first thinks how to make compelling stories, "is that characters loosing too often" is secondary thought.

[Tara]

Yeah, in general it's just the nature of the medium.  A more story-driven narrative means that Sonic has to be faced with adversity for the story to be interesting.  And I figured that in the case of the games, we always sort of pictured the epic battles to be long, arduous and full of tension were they not bound by the laws of gameplay anyway.
 

Unless, of course, you mean "Is Sonic weaker than the other characters in the comics?"  In which case, I haven't actually caught up completely in Archie yet, but I really haven't noticed him exhibiting any greater weakness compared to his friends and rivals.  Later issues may contradict me, but I don't think so.

[Green Eyes]

To put it short, pre-Genensis wave, imo, there was a lot of bull, some of that bull involves Sonic being curb-stomped when he shouldn't have been, so kind of, yeah.

I think a lot times it was for drama effect(aka worf effect), it wasn't really supposed to be a reflection on Sonic's lack of ability, when Sonic was defeated it was supposed to be "shocking" and they overdid it to the point it became cheap.

 

 

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Actually, Archie Sonic is far more powerful and much more capable than you make him out. The thing is, so are his enemies, especially Eggman who in this verse actually has an empire, uses far more lethal and dangerous weaponry in addition to being much more lethal a villain, and on top of that he has cyborg soldiers that fight for him.

It's less that the Archie version of Sonic isn't capable, is that his weaknesses are taken advantage of much more than his game counterpart, most of them mental or strategic instead of physical. He still tangos with much more powerful foes, but they make a point to show that as strong as Sonic is, he can't do everything. And as a result, that's why he has his friends around to help. It was made epically clear when Eggman curbstomped Sonic in 175 in a legit one on one fight that Sonic could barely walk away from, and then later when knowing that Sonic couldn't beat Eggman's mech that he had the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix take it apart since he couldn't go against it.

In fact, that goes for every character, as Shadow and Knuckles have gotten their asses kicked as well. For every strength a character has, they have a weakness that keeps them from being invincible.

[ShadowSJG]

I meant the latter, like weaker than other characters. You're right that a character shouldn't be invincible,that's no fun, but I'm not sure how much they should get thrashed around to show this.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

The do just as much thrashing in return, so I don't really understand what you're getting at.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Me neither.

When Sonic turned Werehog he left team for 2 issues and they were already kicked hard. Knuckles is his last arc was overwhelmed by bunch of monsters, Silver was defeat by some Swatbots, Shadow was kicked by Eclipse. Sonic didn't had a single major defeat lately (unless you count Unite, but that's balanced by Collide where everyone else was captured).

Where exactly Sonic is shown as "getting kicked a lot" comparing to the others?

(Also, what I said earlier: Shadow during 160-196 had much worse and you don't see me complaining).

[Toby]

Well, in the videogames it wouldn't be fun if you got your ass handed to you over and over again. That doesn't apply in a comic medium, where it'd be dull if the  heroes never lost and could just boost 2 win.

[Shadowlax]

On 5/25/2016 at 3:57 AM, MetalSkulkBane said:

 

 

13 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Me neither.

When Sonic turned Werehog he left team for 2 issues and they were already kicked hard. Knuckles is his last arc was overwhelmed by bunch of monsters, Silver was defeat by some Swatbots, Shadow was kicked by Eclipse. Sonic didn't had a single major defeat lately (unless you count Unite, but that's balanced by Collide where everyone else was captured).

Where exactly Sonic is shown as "getting kicked a lot" comparing to the others?

(Also, what I said earlier: Shadow during 160-196 had much worse and you don't see me complaining).

I would probably actually complain about shadow exploding in world unite, the eclipse thing was nothing. He just came off getting to murder someone in comic, and then almost killed eclipse in that encounter, and the immediately after that fought off knuckles.  The thing you should actually complain about is " oops shadow's just dead" in worlds unite, but you could complain about... a lot of things in worlds unite to be truthful. 

the truth is compelling narratives aren't first , pushing the characters is. Its why sonic universe exists, you can't have characters just loosing, because looks really bad. And it a post Sega yells at them / reboot world, that can't happen. He talked about why all the fights end in ties and stuff before bumbleking shut down. 

 

In regards to sonic, i mean i think its less him getting kicked and more he does a lot of nothing much, he's roll is to globe trot and meet new folks. 

Though this is a odd complaint to lodge now considering everyone is about to do a cool thing for the next few issues. 

[ShadowSJG]

I guess when I was reading it when I was younger, I felt his feats were lesser than Knuckles or Shadow at times, but I mostly read the flynn era, so I was probably wrong.