Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[DabigRG]

9 minutes ago, charmsb said:

So @Diogenes recently pointed out that the Electric one looks like Ashura, a fan character based on a palette swap glitch from Sonic 2.

 

Which reminds me that Ian Flynn stated that Dr. Starline is directly inspired by "**********" or "Wechnia", a character formed out of Tails' leftover data from Knuckles Chaotix. Dr. Starline shares a lot of his colors and even his logo is a reference to it.

So, that's cool! Dr. Starline's minions are ALSO based on palette swap glitches. But, what about the Water one? I was thinking it could very well be a reference to Blue Knuckles or 'Tails' from Sonic 3.

Edit: Having trouble finding it, but I'm super sure "Blue Knuckles" even has Tails' tails come out of his mouth in one of his sprites.

 

They're kinda stretched references if so, but then Sega had a hand in steering Starline away from Finitevus/Zachary and thus Wechnia thus far.

Also, there's a fourth outlier not shown there

[charmsb]

20 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

They're kinda stretched references if so, but then Sega had a hand in steering Starline away from Finitevus/Zachary and thus Wechnia thus far.

Also, there's a fourth outlier not shown there

Oh, yeah I never knew about Thrash being inspired by a palette swap as well. I think these new guys being based on Ashura and Blue Knuckles is plausible given that the idea of doing so is not strange to Flynn.

[Sega DogTagz]

1 hour ago, Diogenes said:

Do we even know if "smart" is what he's going for? The running theme for his whole plan has been Sonic Heroes' team system, which is based on the characters' physical abilities. Granted there isn't any sign of Tails' physical abilities in this one and only a passing physical resemblance, but then we know basically nothing about them at this point so it's hard to judge what the goal of any aspect of them is.

True, but I'm not willing to overlook the hint dropped in the solits, which use curious phrasing of "fastest" and "smartest".

Despite the focus on the heroes mechanic, these two are clearly built in Sonic and Tails image with their key traits on the forefront. The blue "fox" and yellow/orange "hedgehog" makes it a bit on the nose

 

 

 

55 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

Plus ya know, he has mind control abilities to keep them in line. 

 

That hypno tech has limits and genius intellect will stress them. This is the same series where a genius scientist rationalized his way back from insanity.

 

Furthermore, Starline is on record saying his hypnosis is less effective on strong minded people, and we may well literally be talking about a Sonic clone here.

[MetalSkulkBane]

I'm not going to speculate on Starline's plan till we learned more. Who knows, maybe he put bombs in their head. We can speculate all day, not enough data.

Here's something we do know.

Everyone knows Sonic doesn't like water, right?
Well, Tails has small lightning phobia, It's not as official, but fanboy like Flynn might remember.

I wonder if that inspired Starline's new enforcers in anyway.

[charmsb]

7 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

I'm not going to speculate on Starline's plan till we learned more. Who knows, maybe he put bombs in their head. We can speculate all day, not enough data.

Here's something we do know.

Everyone knows Sonic doesn't like water, right?
Well, Tails has small lightning phobia, It's not as official, but fanboy like Flynn might remember.

I wonder if that inspired Starline's new enforcers in anyway.

This was touched on a page or two ago, but yeah I think that's likely. And I'm personally a huge believer that, just like Starline, these guys are based on palette swap glitches.

[CertifiedNobody]

7 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

I'm not going to speculate on Starline's plan till we learned more. Who knows, maybe he put bombs in their head. We can speculate all day, not enough data.

Here's something we do know.

Everyone knows Sonic doesn't like water, right?
Well, Tails has small lightning phobia, It's not as official, but fanboy like Flynn might remember.

I wonder if that inspired Starline's new enforcers in anyway.

Someone once said that the clip sounds like he's saying "I'm a pretty lady" and now I can't unhear it.

[Sonictrainer]

18 hours ago, DabigRG said:

(Image of Thrash the Tasmanian devil that I can't see for some reason)

I don't know what it is, but there's always been something off about Thrash.

I would love to see someone redesign him because I feel like he's incomplete.

 

On topic, I'm wonder if Eggman's imposter will have Zeti powers?

[caitash]

I know this is going to be a bit ‘is the dress white/gold or blue/black’ however since I see people in a few different places are calling the girl/electric character green. She actually looks orangey yellow to me? Do we have a Sonic-coloured Tails-clone, and a Tails-coloured Sonic-clone? If so then this is getting really, really messed up and I am absolutely definitely here for it to see where it goes.

[Sega DogTagz]

1 hour ago, caitash said:

I know this is going to be a bit ‘is the dress white/gold or blue/black’ however since I see people in a few different places are calling the girl/electric character green. She actually looks orangey yellow to me?

Ah. I was wondering why people were drawing connections to Ashura. lol

 

1 hour ago, caitash said:

Do we have a Sonic-coloured Tails-clone, and a Tails-coloured Sonic-clone? If so then this is getting really, really messed up and I am absolutely definitely here for it to see where it goes.

Thats what it looks like to me, and it makes perfect sense for someone like Starline to flip the basic script like that.

 

 

15 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

I'm not going to speculate on Starline's plan till we learned more. Who knows, maybe he put bombs in their head. We can speculate all day, not enough data.

I don't need more data to know that you can't keep someone smarter than yourself under your thumb forever.

 

Also, lesser minds have engineered solutions to bigger problems. Dimitri was able to create a fix for a remarkably similar bomb in head plot back in Archie, and he's half the mechanics wiz Tails is. Whatever Starline has in his back pocket to keep them in check, it wont be able to stop a duo of a Sonic and Tails clone for very long. Forget Eggman trying to harness Chaos or Dark Gaia, this man is trying to tame the forces of nature that brought those Gods down.

Madness.

[Mauro Fonseca]

With certain dramatic lighting conditions etc, green can read as yellow.

 

Even if it is green.

 

Wink, nudge.

[DabigRG]

19 hours ago, DabigRG said:

They're kinda stretched references if so, but then Sega had a hand in steering Starline away from Finitevus/Zachary and thus Wechnia thus far.

Also, there's a fourth outlier not shown there

 

1 hour ago, Sonictrainer said:

I don't know what it is, but there's always been something off about Thrash.

I would love to see someone redesign him because I feel like he's incomplete.

...Okay, are these images just not showing up for me alone? Because I actually edited my post several times trying to get it to appear before giving up and now this one isn't showing up for me either.

 

Anyway, it's worth noting that Mr. Flynn is solely responsible for Thrash's design, intentionally keeping simple to look more Segafied while also going for the same body type the Werehog ended up with, and that minor detail of his muzzle being squared was mostly left out when Steven Butler did Endangered Species. 

 

1 hour ago, Sonictrainer said:

On topic, I'm wonder if Eggman's imposter will have Zeti powers?

Ooh, that'd be ...something. Are we assuming they're his Kryptonite?

 

In fact, here's a question for the beginning of Zeti Hunt: Did Eggman plan on actually fighting Master Zik before Sonic showed up? I realize that it's a piloted mech rather than a standard Badnik or the special ones he made just for them, but the Zeti can technically manipulate Electronics in general.

[Sega DogTagz]

1 hour ago, DabigRG said:

I realize that it's a piloted mech rather than a standard Badnik or the special ones he made just for them, but the Zeti can technically manipulate Electronics in general.

Eggy has found ways around manipulation under multiple writers pens, so I think he would make it pretty clear if he designed something as a trump card to the Zeti's control. In Boom he was able to top Lyric's button with simple analog interface. In Archie he had the Hard Light construct to get past Naugus crystal magics and a bot built from ceramics and tension cords to get past Regina's technomancy.

In each case - he was very boastful about designing the workaround. So I think its a safe bet that if Eggy specifically brought something to the party to curb the Zeti's powers, he would be the first to let everyone know about it. lol.

[Meta77]

Looks confused. She looks noting like that recolor of sonic

[DabigRG]

I'm sorry for the late notice, but did that solicit just say the miniseries would be TEN PARTS?!

17 hours ago, Sega DogTagz said:

Eggy has found ways around manipulation under multiple writers pens, so I think he would make it pretty clear if he designed something as a trump card to the Zeti's control. In Boom he was able to top Lyric's button with simple analog interface. In Archie he had the Hard Light construct to get past Naugus crystal magics and a bot built from ceramics and tension cords to get past Regina's technomancy.

In each case - he was very boastful about designing the workaround. So I think its a safe bet that if Eggy specifically brought something to the party to curb the Zeti's powers, he would be the first to let everyone know about it. lol.

Oh yeah, I figured as much with Regina in particular coming to mind.

 

It's just that it's a logical extension of the overall powerscaling problem the Deadly Six had since Lost World--we know the Zeti's in a electromagnetic abilities allows them manipulate electronics, but we don't have a defined understanding of that power set. While that only amounted to them control Badniks and their custom designed mechs, Eggman's phrasing made it sound like they can do more than that and even seemed to foreshadow something crazy that ultimately never happens. That goes for that game as well as the light reappearances in later games(Froggy Cloud and comics notwithstanding).

And that emphasizes the admittedly obvious issue of where they stand as recurring characters in not only the neverending Sonic vs Eggman battle, but the greater Sonic universe (whatever that might be at a given time period). Them seeking revenge on Sonic makes enough sense as a generalized framework, but things ironically get dicey when you really think about their more developed/interesting hatred of Eggman: how do they actually coexist from a practical standpoint? Them picking fights with Sonic and his friends works because they can believably fight back and send the Zeti pac'in until their next meeting, but the techno-evil of Dr. Eggman is something they can inherently shrug off and they're eager to kill!

Which brings me here, where he was gonna personally go after them here: where is the limit to their control and how can someone who relies on technology get around it? Cause unless they flat out can't influence Mechs very well(which Zavok siccing the Brutes on the Egg Mobile may support), they can probably disable them without a fight if they don't just decide to do so for sport and in the event they do so, then what?

We know Eggman is much faster and stronger than he appears, but what are his chances of facing even one Zeti hand to hand and winning? They have don't have much of a track record due to only fighting Sonic in the games and inevitably having to lose in their debut, but they are in fact meant to be powerful experienced warriors armed with claws and horns among other individual abilities. Master Zik in particular could potentially disable him with only his psychic powers and he definitely would need something like the Hard Light armor to face Zavok in particular, who on top of being the strongest of the Six can outright parry Sonic's homing attack.

Eggman can indeed plan around all that, but that's just a theory.

12 hours ago, Meta77 said:

Looks confused. She looks noting like that recolor of sonic

Yeah, that's pretty obviously just the assumed homage in spirit. 

Unless she really is a type of hedgehog, I imagine she's a similar deal as Starline himself in how they either deliberately or through notes(not mandate) avoided making her a clear Sonic clone due to his trademark design. That and the minor demand for female villains & male heroes may have influenced them to make her an Amy clone instead. 

[Red Hot Jack]

It's a 10 part story between 6 main series issues and 4 part mini, an adventure that builds slowly and culminates in a showdown in issue 50.

45-50 + 4 part miniseries. Definitely a curious new format.

[Razule]

I don't get calling them doppelgangers when they don't look enough like any particular character to be mistaken for them.

[DabigRG]

41 minutes ago, Jack-al said:

It's a 10 part story between 6 main series issues and 4 part mini, an adventure that builds slowly and culminates in a showdown in issue 50.

45-50 + 4 part miniseries. Definitely a curious new format.

Oh okay, that makes a lot more sense!

27 minutes ago, Razule said:

I don't get calling them doppelgangers when they don't look enough like any particular character to be mistaken for them.

Admittedly, the title Imposter Syndrome seems illfiting in general at first glance.

 

[SBR2]

1 hour ago, Jack-al said:

It's a 10 part story between 6 main series issues and 4 part mini, an adventure that builds slowly and culminates in a showdown in issue 50.

45-50 + 4 part miniseries. Definitely a curious new format.

Eh, not really that curious. Crossover stories between "family" books is pretty common. Not just in Marveland DC but IDW themselves have done it with Transformers "Dark Cybertron" storyline being told in both ongoing books.

[Sega DogTagz]

2 hours ago, Razule said:

I don't get calling them doppelgangers when they don't look enough like any particular character to be mistaken for them.

 

I should throw something at your head. Sonic has been mistaken for Metal Sonic, Shadow and Silver in the past. Quite frankly, if android girl is indeed a Hedgehog, then she checks the only doppelganger box she needs to fill in.

 

If the headlines read, Hedgehog and Fox cause a ruckus downtown - Sonic and Tails will be the first people on the planet who will be asked to explain themselves. Doubly so if the victims are getting speed blitz'd and security systems are getting hacked along the way.

[Wraith]

11 hours ago, Razule said:

I don't get calling them doppelgangers when they don't look enough like any particular character to be mistaken for them.

Maybe they were active members of the restoration before Starline experiments on them, so when he unleashes them they'll be able to get behind enemy lines easier.

[Razule]

On 8/22/2021 at 5:28 PM, Sega DogTagz said:

 

I should throw something at your head. Sonic has been mistaken for Metal Sonic, Shadow and Silver in the past. Quite frankly, if android girl is indeed a Hedgehog, then she checks the only doppelganger box she needs to fill in.

 

If the headlines read, Hedgehog and Fox cause a ruckus downtown - Sonic and Tails will be the first people on the planet who will be asked to explain themselves. Doubly so if the victims are getting speed blitz'd and security systems are getting hacked along the way.

She's not even a hedgehog though (unless.. she's bald?), or blue. Maybe they're both moving really fast, they'd look like blue and yellow blurs, but this still seems like a stretch to me. Eh, I guess we'll see how it goes.

[SBR2]

12 hours ago, Razule said:

She's not even a hedgehog though (unless.. she's bald?),

She has quills. They're tied up.

[PublicEnemy1]

4 hours ago, SBR2 said:

She has quills. They're tied up.

Ehh... I still kinda doubt she's a hedgehog. The ears don't really match up, and I doubt SEGA will just let them make another hedgehog character without serious convincing.

[Diogenes]

2 minutes ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

Ehh... I still kinda doubt she's a hedgehog. The ears don't really match up, and I doubt SEGA will just let them make another hedgehog character without serious convincing.

I think someone speculated that she might be a long-eared hedgehog, which seems pretty plausible to me.

[PublicEnemy1]

1 hour ago, Diogenes said:

I think someone speculated that she might be a long-eared hedgehog, which seems pretty plausible to me.

I didn't know there were long-eared hedgehogs. Huh. Learn something new everyday.