Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[KoDaiko]

6 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

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I do get it, because he NEEDS some type of edge; he doesn't have Sonic's innate abilities or Eggman's resources, and he specifically noted that he needed something to even the odds. I doubt it'll be all that game changing. He hasn't done much yet, and looks like he mostly caught Shadow by surprise....which isn't saying much I know given his less than stellar record in the comic, but still too early to tell.

 

Spoiler

Yeah I understand.

I am so mixed. Half of me is saying it's way too early to tell, that Starline's gonna need something to work alone. I know I'm overreacting.

But the other half of me is disappointed because having all three abilities doesn't feel unique enough for an semi-important character (especially in comic where abilities can easily overlap), and it feels like he "downgraded" to generic baddie but w/ some brain. 

He could've used his "enforcers" (which I hope is brought up again) for the tricore roles, and stayed as the scheming scientist guy. Like Eggman but less resourced and more grounded, forced to work in a different direction & method.

 

It was a small frustration that kept building up so I needed to get it out, sorry. Thanks for listening.

 

[MetalSkulkBane]

On different note, has anyone read My Little Pony / Transformers crossover? Not exactly on topic, but Flynn was one of the writers.

Personally I'm disappointed. 4 issues split into 2, so we get beginning, end and 6 small stories about one of main ponies (or Spike) sometimes joining forces with Autobot, always fighting Decepticon.

Let me start by saying that tone ruins most of it. This should been way sillier (or way more dramatic). If Rarity and Arcee have to fight Starscream, I want Rarity to make fashion for robots, maybe use Starscream's vanity against him. I don't want her to just make a magic shield, while Arcee shoot. Action is too bland for Transformers and not crazy enough for Ponies. Pikie Pie (embodiment of chaos) fought Shockwave (pure cold logic) and she just slammed a him with frying pan. Not even party canon. And most interactions boil down to both sides commenting how cool dudes the other franchise is.

Other problem is that transformers has maybe 8 characters with strongly defined personalities. Windblade in IDW 2005 continuity was mix of smart politician and kind caring soul. Here she's just cool gal racing Rainbow Dash. And by the time comic throws Misfire or Gauge, we have characters with zero personality beyond "good" and "bad".

Only reason to read are few worlds-clashing jokes. Like Bumlebee failing to disguise himself, because there are no cars in Equestria. Or Fluttershy gushing over Soundwave's pets, and of course Twilight Sparkle putting orange cork over Megatron's gun (like his toys used to have).

This really lowered my hopes for Sonic/ MLP crossover. But if it happens, I hope there won't be any attemps at action. Have they compete in games or something.

[KoDaiko]

New cover for IDW #35 is here.

Warning, it spoils some future plot points:

Spoiler

 

[Sonictrainer]

Spoiler

I'm guessing Starline needs the others in order to refuel the Tricore.

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

Man. I Just love these comic covers.

[KoDaiko]

Oh yeah I just realized. Remember that one cover for Bad Guys #3?

Spoiler

Mimic's gonna be pissed at Starline not because he realized Starline's scheme (though it could be a reason), but because Eggman finds out what really happened & who's responsible. Instead of getting deleted from the database, or even if he was, Eggman will remember him as a threat & put on his personal watchlist forever.

 

[KoDaiko]

Sorry for double post, but we got additional preview pages for #34:

Spoiler

 

They have all the previews together here:

https://tailschannel.com/idw-sonic/updates/sonic-the-hedgehog-34-previews/

 

[caitash]

Issue 34 is out:

 

I enjoyed it. It felt like equal attention was given to both stories, and it felt like a fair amount happened to move the story along. I like Belle, but I’m curious about her. She says part of her data is ‘missing’. I wonder if it’s the robot-version of amnesia and later on her data will be restored and she realises that she works (or originally worked) for either Eggman/MrTinker or Starline. 

I think also that is definitely Rouge (and not Mimic) but she is under hypnosis or a similar effect from the hooded figure the night before.

[Red Hot Jack]

I don't know about the part with the girls, it felt too fast

Spoiler

And apparently resolved, but yeah Rouge is fishy, she's likely Starline's pawn. Shadow... I refuse to believe he fights to prove himself and face challenges, he fights for justice, for his friends even if he doesn't want to admit, he saved the girls and the Chao, and Omega. Fact.

Although I'm still annoyed by his loner attitude. The action felt too rushed though and kinda cheap.

But the part with Sonic and Tails was awesome even with not much happening, Belle is definitely the most interesting out of all the OCs introduced, she has potential for great interactions with EVERYONE.

Also, I assume the hooded figure/Starline is in the arc just because Shadow needs a "threat", otherwise there would be no evil and no conflict. Not sure how I feel about this. It feels Dr. Starline is supposed to be here added last minute.

I'm so happy with how everyone is written though, Amy and Rouge as Cream's babysitters, Sonic and Tails as bros also with Sonic being cocky and Tails as calm and smart, that's how they should be.

[Kuzu]

This did feel somewhat rushed BUT...

Spoiler

The impression I got is that Clutch was a red herring for the ACTUAL threat, which is Starlene. Which to be fair, would have remained a mystery had we not been spoiled by it from Bad Guys.  That said, I love the suspense from this issue. We never found out what happened between Rouge and the hooded figure, and since we know it's Starlene, it's easy to infer that he hypnotized her to bring in Sonic & Tails so he can destroy them all at once. And that panel of Rouge looking ominous after she leaves to call the two. I love that type of storytelling and how it builds suspense and anticipation.

Besides that however, the character writing and artwork are good as usual. There was actually less of the girls this time and more on Sonic, Tails, and Shadow. I like how impatient and childish Sonic gets when he's forced in a confined space and his "kill on sight" attitude towards badniks lol. Belle...well too early for me to tell, but it seems she's aware that Tinkerer and Eggman aren't the same so I wonder where that's going. And I like how Tails geeks out over her design, we need more moments of Tails geeking out over technology. 

And holy shit guys, Shadow actually accomplished something without failing for once. And on top of that, while he speaks as if he's only looking for a good fight, his disgusted reaction towards Clutch's treatment of his Chao tell a different story, and he's just being coy. So I appreciate that bit of depth added. It's not much, but it paints him in a slightly better light than just being someone who's just trying to stroke his own ego. 

Pretty great issue overall, and I'm actually excited for the next to see how this plays out. 

[MetalSkulkBane]

Sonic #34.....Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeh.

IDK, I don't feel this issue at all. Let's get things that I liked in the story. Both of them

- Sonic getting bored in base, that was cute.
- Amy's attitude towards Rouge. She's obviously disproving of her and not trusting with everything, but she isn't hostile about it. She treats Rouge like team member with surprising amount of good will. It's a subtle addition, but that that's much closer to Amy people wanted to see in long time.

The rest?
 

Spoiler

Sonic attacking Belle feels a little weird. I know, he got "squirrelly" but we spend last 33 issues establishing Sonic is saint "let Metal and Eggman off the hook" goodie-gooder, him stepping on Belle's tail feels just so weirdly mean.
It would work better if he did not get a good look at her before attacking. Then we could have a line like "wait, you don't look like badnik. Is that a trick? You have hidden blades or something?"

And why was that skirmish necessary? So we can see Belle's amazing power of... dodging? I'm sorry, but Belle gets a really underwhelming introduction. Can't say that her personality grabbed me. I think her origin can be fascinating, but for now they pretending it's a mystery,  Honestly if they wanted dramatic cliffhanger it should end with her revealing Tinker build her. Because Sonic Vs few badniks is pretty pathetic sequel hook.

(Also, it's not "data" that is missing. She clearly was about to say "dad")

Moving on, main plot. This chao racing story has pretty boring chao races. Amy, Cream, Gemerl are here, but don't do much. They claim they will back Rouge, but that's a lie, they don't get to do squat. The main story is Team Dark Vs Clutch....sorta. I have no idea what happened.
What was Rouge plan? What was Omega suppose to do, when he's just a head? And why we act like Shadow saved the bloody day, when Cream alone could probably beat Clutch? He says something about "not being defenseless" only to go down after one kick. What the heck happened? If he's about to summon giant bodyguard or something, wouldn't that be a good cliffhanger?

Mysterious Hooded Figures, the most mysterious part of the last issue? Gone, not even mentioned. Kinda annoying. At least give me some vague foreshadowing

But hey, Shadow did something right.
You know, I was ready to embrace the joke how much failure he was recently. Creating Infinite, helping Neo evolve, not getting into Smash Ultimate. I had jokes prepared that his death in World Unite caused another amnesia and he forgot he's cool. Or that meeting Boom Shadow lowered his standards. And that his biggest recent triumph was literally kicking himself in a head and calling a faker. And this issue took that from me.

Now I have to say "but it's alright, he got to deal single blow to small time villain before Rouge or Amy would do that anyway". Yippee.
Ok, let's look at it without "insufferable Shadow fanboy" glasses. Shadow is still a jerk, but got touched by chao's fate. He doesn't get to do much, but neither do girls so who cares? Eh.

Also,
- why Shadow doesn't get place in Roll Cast? Even if they keep one spot for Belle, they could just squeeze Cream and Cheese together. Or remove Gemerl, who's pretty pointless so far in this arc
- Shadow described people as "rabble" which is exactly how Infinite talked. How nice.

[Dr. Detective]

Issue 34 was a-okay. I don't have much else to say about it.

I like the manuvering thats being done to keep Team Dark as the shady group that does things the true heroes don't in order to get the job done. I'm also a sucker for more Sonic and Tails bonding time.

Thats all really.

[caitash]

9 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

 

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(Also, it's not "data" that is missing. She clearly was about to say "dad")

 

 

Oh yeah, you’re right. My bad! I misread it the first time.

[Zaysho]

Probably spoilers,

Spoiler

but I'm kind of expecting by the time this all ends Grumphog's gonna have a certain pet, ha.

 

[VO.SUPER]

Something that came to my head recently. Two Sonic comics IDW should be able to republished would be the Sonic X and Boom comics. Those shouldn't be caught up in any legal kerfuffle as far as we know. 

[Zulon Eredas]

33 minutes ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

Something that came to my head recently. Two Sonic comics IDW should be able to republished would be the Sonic X and Boom comics. Those shouldn't be caught up in any legal kerfuffle as far as we know. 

Sonic X is split between various license holders making reprinting difficult.

[VO.SUPER]

6 minutes ago, Zulon Eredas said:

Sonic X is split between various license holders making reprinting difficult.

TMS and Sega are essentially buddy buddy, so i don't doubt they can't work. Archie may be trouble, but we don't know how much they control over those reprints. 

[PublicEnemy1]

12 minutes ago, Zulon Eredas said:

Sonic X is split between various license holders making reprinting difficult.

Not to mention SEGA wouldn't want to go back to either series. They are dead-set to eliminating anything from the past that wasn't successful.

[VO.SUPER]

1 minute ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

Not to mention SEGA wouldn't want to go back to either series. They are dead-set to eliminating anything from the past that wasn't successful.

I mean, SEGA seems to have gotten over some of that with Sonic X since letting Discotek put out those DVD and TMS upload the series + storyboards online. 

Boom may be dead in the water, but stranger things have happened. 

[Pengi]

1 hour ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

TMS and Sega are essentially buddy buddy, so i don't doubt they can't work. Archie may be trouble, but we don't know how much they control over those reprints. 

TMS is a subsidiary of Sega.

1 hour ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

Not to mention SEGA wouldn't want to go back to either series. They are dead-set to eliminating anything from the past that wasn't successful.

Sonic X was successful.

[Rabbitearsblog]

1 hour ago, Pengi said:

TMS is a subsidiary of Sega.

Sonic X was successful.

I agree that Sonic X was more successful compared to the other Sonic the Hedgehog shows.  So far, it's the only one that has ran for 3 seasons while most of the other Sonic shows ran for 1 to 2 seasons at best.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

The hell counts as success to Sega? If they were dead set on avoiding what isn’t successful, they wouldn’t still be using characters like the Deadly Six or continuing the direction they’ve been going with the games up to Forces.

[Razule]

1 hour ago, CrownSlayer’s Shadow said:

continuing the direction they’ve been going with the games up to Forces.

Direction changed a lot between the whopping two games released after Generations.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

5 hours ago, Razule said:

Direction changed a lot between the whopping two games released after Generations.

Considering they still share a number of same criticisms, I highly doubt that.

[VO.SUPER]

11 hours ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

I agree that Sonic X was more successful compared to the other Sonic the Hedgehog shows.  So far, it's the only one that has ran for 3 seasons while most of the other Sonic shows ran for 1 to 2 seasons at best.

 I mean. If we're going by Japan it was only 2 seasons. 

It does have the most episodes, but Sonic Boom is close at their count.