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IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread


Dejimon11

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Well we're getting a double length issue for #13 (I can still call those super specials, right?), and the solicit comes off like it could have some elements of falling action, or an after party.

 

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I honestly found this storyline to be pretty "meh." I can't really explain why, but it felt like a one or two-issue story dragged out across three. At the same time, every issue felt like it ended way too quickly, which I think was due to the higher amount of action with less dialogue. Having both Super Neo Metal Sonic and Master Overlord felt excessive, and neither form did anything particularly interesting. Plus, the switching between Yardley and Stanley's art over the past two issues was kind of jarring (Stanley's sketchier and significantly more expressive style just doesn't gel well with Yardley's).

I'm trying to really like the comic, but for some reason I can't quite pinpoint, it's just failing to draw me in the way the Archie comic did. Maybe I'm just weird that way.

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9 hours ago, Marco9966 said:

It is, official SEGA rules are that males can't have pants, and issue 3 was just an exception that the SEGA officials did not pay attention to.

Females: pants always, Males: pants never, so it's a platypus guy 100%.

We're not in prereboot when SEGA had no mandates.

I know the mandates that males never wear pants, but I don't think it's specifically a mandate that females HAVE to wear lower clothing. Besides, SEGA does pay attention to things, they aren't that incompetent. 

The FFs redesign was apparently a move by Ian himself, and IIRC, he was going to give Sally her Reboot clothes if she was going to be un-roboticized. I think it's a view that Ian himself has.

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Well that was...underwhelming. It doesn't feel like there was a hard fought victory, but rather some stuff happened and then the battle was over. 

 

I suppose the lack of fleshing out and proper buildup to this whole arc is the reason for that; there's no real thematic meaning to all of this, it's just a fight and that's it. Which is fine if you're just an action junkie who likes looking at good colors and action scenes, but as a storyline it is pretty unimpressive and doesn't really leave any impact after it's all said and done. 

I mean, I suppose that's not really much of an issue if this comic is aimed at a younger demographic, in which case you can get away with witty dialogue and flashy action scenes with no real meaning behind all of it, but there's not much else here if you're looking for anything deeper. 

Hopefully Year 2 can try to make all of these feel meaningful, otherwise this is probably gonna be a series I remember to read every couple of months for my Sonic action fix. 

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Looks like we all hate IDW Sonic now.
The only part of the issue that was kinda worth it was

Spoiler

Starline,

but we only saw him for like, a couple pages. We don't even know how he's gonna be later on.
I don't know if it's even worth reading year two, if it's gonna be the exact same shallow, souless advertisment.
I just might give up after Issue 12.

Worst part, I don't know who to blame. Is it SEGA and their stupid, goddamn mandates? Is it Ian being burnt out, or just flat-out not caring? Is it the incompetence of the editors, or IDW itself? Until I get answers, I just don't know how much long I'm gonna keep wasting my money and time on it.

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8 minutes ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

Looks like we all hate IDW Sonic now.

So offering genuine critique is hate now huh, gotcha.

 

 

What is with people that assume because you didn't absolutely love it, it means you hate something.

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Just now, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

So offering genuine critique is hate now huh, gotcha.

 

 

What is with people that assume because you didn't absolutely love it, it means you hate something.

I was being semi-jokey there, but that wasn't even the point I was trying to convey. I was trying to say how I feel about this comic as a whole.

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I honestly feel it's just expectations being set too high for such a short span of time. Archie wasn't anything to write home about until at least issue 25 in my eyes.

This stone just needs time to gather moss.

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12 minutes ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

I mean, its not like I think everything up until now has been bad, just painfully mediocre and boring. 

Pretty much. The character writing isn't the problem with this comic series, it's the story telling. It's just not very interesting.

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This issue had some doofy faces at points, with the ones in the later parts clearly being intentional.

Spoiler

Also, I tried to look up what Dr. Starlight is and I think he might actually be an obscure lizard.

19 hours ago, Kazhnuz said:

I really like this reveal.

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First, his design and the first look of his personallity show really great promises.  And I'm happy if he will be the new boss of the two shunks bros.

I'm really happy that we are getting a new villiain. As I often says, we need more villains, and he have pretty good potential. I think he'll be a recurring one, especially as he is named and that named characters aren't many in this new comic-book.

 

So he have the potential to be at least a pretty fun antagonist, or to become a really good one. I'm pretty excited.

 

15 hours ago, I Love Sticks said:

 

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But still, interesting new character, plus we always wanted a villain not related to the Eggman Empire as that was one of the complaints post-reboot, so he kinda fits, although he wants to work with him.

 

.

Oh, definitely.

19 hours ago, Kazhnuz said:

I really like this reveal.

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First, his design and the first look of his personallity show really great promises. He give me some king of Finitevus-y vibes (not that I think he will be like Finitevus, it's just the vibes this new guys give me).

 

Spoiler

Yeah, Finitevus was the first thing I thought of why I saw the design.

19 hours ago, Kazhnuz said:

I really like this reveal.

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I think that the "he is from the future" theory is pretty interesting, what also can be pretty interesting if he is actually the cause of the new future of Silver, not Neo Metal Sonic. It would solve what I thought was pretty strange about the future of Silver (that it didn't fit at all with NMS goals).

 

 

What even was Metal's goal?. 

 

15 hours ago, I Love Sticks said:

 

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I like the new character, he seems intriguing, definitely more than Nega, although I kind of wanted him so Blaze could be key in the next storyline.

Spoiler

Mm...wait for it..

.

15 hours ago, I Love Sticks said:

 

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 The writing sure was fine here, and Yardley surprised me, I'm impressed, definitely way better than his other work on IDW. Most characters had great moments like Silver, great expressions from Knux, the only one who I feel did nothing to contribute was Shadow... I mean, he caused the problem and wasn't key in defeating Metal. Kinda lame.

As for the pacing, really great and not forced longer, instead we got a 3 parter plus an epilogue that leads into the next year arc, really nice narrative decision, more adaptive and flexible writing by Flynn. Only negative thing is that we lacked a big dramatic and epic moment, it wasn't really that "wow!".

 

 

14 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Issue 11...before you read it, just try to guess what happened. The most obvious way things go.

Chances are you'll get 90% correctly.

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Everyone punches Metal, while Knuckles removed Master Emerald and they win. The end.

Shadow doesn't do squat, doesn't even punches the wing. I wouldn't mind, if they didn't tricked me into thinking he will do something more.
No clarification how Metal transformations work, just deal with what issue 10 gave us.

Really, it just makes me think about quality of this arc , that comic  immediately tries to distract me with something new. 

Still, one issue left, that might be interesting.

Yeah, this issue, while definitely better organized than the previous one, just kinda felt like a gradual cleanup session.

To the point that the stuff with the villains just kinda cuts in at one point, even.

15 hours ago, I Love Sticks said:

 

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 Still, he's very interesting, but I prefer Whisper out of the new characters.

 

 

 

14 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Issue 11...before you read it, just try to guess what happened. The most obvious way things go.

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And the only thing of importance: new villain. Neat, but phrase 'new character' isn't enough to make me exited. Really, it just makes me think about quality of this arc , that comic  immediately tries to distract me with something new. (okay, I'm being harsh. Those kinda sequel-hooks are tradition more-less since Archie Sonic 200.

Still, one issue left, that might be interesting.

We need to see more of him in action to get a proper feel for him.

15 hours ago, Marco9966 said:

What do you think of the name? Its not sega-style like whisper or tangle, but I lpve the design!

 

15 hours ago, Kazhnuz said:

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

His name is probably the thing that perplexes me about him, SEGA style or otherwise.

15 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

 

Guess it solidifies my theory that shadow might not have at least when Ian thought it up, in the first year of the comic.

Might not have what now?

13 hours ago, Marco9966 said:
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Also was the base Dr.Starline is in the same Eggman base as Sonic Adventure?? (the one in mystic ruin)

 

Spoiler

Yep, it's definitely Final Egg. In fact, I think that device is actually where Gamma was activated.

 

13 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

He didn't say the day, he made the problem worse.

And the fight with sonic before...wasn't good, it was two people got shoved and then talked in a forest and then nothing. He also in that issue contributed nothing of value.

12 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

I agree with this

I don't think shadow is written enough in 10 or 11 to parce out his personality. And issue 6 its a pretty bad take on it. And he doesn't really get to actually like, be himself. Because being himself would require telling the protagonist to " Go ahead and kill him " and sonic just... isn't equipped to handle dialog like that, so reasonably they opted out. But what resulted was an issue where shadow wasted everyone's time.

.

Agreed.

13 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

 

With that said NOBODY in this comic seriously contributes. If Silver and Amy switched in issues #2 and #8 , story wouldn't change much. 

Nah, not true.

In fact, Issue 2 still probably the best one in part because it actually made its featured character feel relevant and/or integral to what that issue's story was doing.

12 hours ago, PublicEnemy1 said:
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Dr. Starline is more like a fusion of Dr. Finitevus and Dr. Quack from the Pre-Archie comic to me.

 

I mean, I guess in terms of appearance with the latter, I suppose.

There's another character that's much more fitting/significant a comparison, though.

12 hours ago, Diogenes said:

An underwhelming conclusion to an underwhelming arc.

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. And once the emerald's popped off the fight's just immediately over. No desperate last struggles, no cursing the heroes, we don't even see Metal actually go down, we just jump from his reaction as Overlord to finding him back in 'hog form and KOed 2 pages later.

 

Yeah, that was kind of lame.

Probably cause it's Metal Sonic though.

11 hours ago, PublicEnemy1 said:
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Platypus confirmed.

 

Oh, so he is one! Nevermind then.

11 hours ago, Sonic Fan J said:

I don't know what the big difference between 10 and 11 is for me, but 11 thoroughly entertained me. I 'm not even for certain how to put it into words, but it might honestly be spectacle. Sure spectacle can and is frequently pretty shallow, and there is no doubt that 11 kind of suffers it at points, but I am a genuine sucker for spectacle and 11 delivered in ways that 10 never even came close to. 

It was better organized and had more of substance happen in it, including little character moments both interactive and visual. 

11 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Just noticed a small reference detail I quite liked.

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also Knuckles’ has some faces in this issue that is on par with mega drive and I love that

 

Uh, you say Megadrive, I thought something else.

 

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14 minutes ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

I mean, its not like I think everything up until now has been bad, just painfully mediocre and boring. 

I think i'm a bit warmer on the book

But you aren't wrong

 

It ain't the worst sonic comic thing, by a country mile.

 

It isn't exactly great

24 minutes ago, Cuz said:

I honestly feel it's just expectations being set too high for such a short span of time. Archie wasn't anything to write home about until at least issue 25 in my eyes.

This stone just needs time to gather moss.

My expectations were not high at all. So those not being met aren't great

I was and am making excuses for it, but uh... sheesh

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33 minutes ago, Cuz said:

I honestly feel it's just expectations being set too high for such a short span of time. Archie wasn't anything to write home about until at least issue 25 in my eyes.

This stone just needs time to gather moss.

Given the Boom comic died before it got room to find its footing, there indeed exists room for concern. This comic must be kept alive to find its footing. I’d still give it... 149 more chances? 

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12 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

Progressive. Though to be fair, all the story relevant ones have pants. So among  designs sega may care about its consistent. They even put pants on sally, eventually

Panties. For the most part.

And shorts.

12 hours ago, Meta77 said:

I hate referring to ff in this thread but I mean Sally didn't wear pants. Could be a girl honestly

Also is neo still alive. Where does he go

Oh boy...why?

And in the bushes.

10 hours ago, Miragnarok said:

The Charmy Bee Corollary. 

 

Once again i wonder why Antoine didn’t keep his jacket.

The jacket was meant to signify that he was a member of the Royal Guard.

Once they were changed to have those strap things and red versions of Sally's shoes, it was natural to change him as well.

10 hours ago, Earnest-Panda said:

If you can see their crotch, they’re a dude.

latest?cb=20161116213400giphy.webp

10 hours ago, Cuz said:

 

The Butterfly maybe?

I've only seen the panel with Jade and Crystal and even then I noticed Jade actually wearing more in the way of pants then she usually does. xD

I'm happy to see them show up since they're better designed then standard background extras.

My only thing is that she probably shouldn't have geyser'd her pipes with so many of them in one issue.

 

 

 

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38 minutes ago, Miragnarok said:

Given the Boom comic died before it got room to find its footing, there indeed exists room for concern. This comic must be kept alive to find its footing. I’d still give it... 149 more chances? 

Lol, I'm not that generous! If this thing hasn't struck some cords by issue 50 there's indeed cause for concern but, in keeping with what I said, I'm using Archie as benchmark and expecting more out of year three then one or two honestly. Right now almost everything just feels like setup to me and I'm waiting for the payoffs.

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Alright. I just read Issue 11. 

I liked that okay. It was better. 

So the issue of the characters being away from anything important was resolved by Tails bringing the fight to Metal and vice-versa. If there were no other threats of any real consequence aside from the Fleet of Ships that were taken out by Burning Blaze than, the only other avenue to go would be to have them all gang up on him to take him out.

I was really happy with the way the fight scene was done. It did adequately feel as though everyone was working together this time, for the most part. I will say there is one hang up about this resolution that I do feel hurts it quite a bit.

It's not the fault of the issue itself though. It's more due to the fallout of Issue 10. This issue felt like a nice resolution to a fight that should have been a bit longer than this. One of the things that helps to make the fights in something like this seem more climactic is when they last an entire issue, which this did, so that was a plus. However, the set-up kind of warranted something a bit more in my opinion. Perhaps an issue where they were trying to get their bearings against this new form and then this issue where they defeat it... but waiting in between months for that probably wouldn't have been worth it. It's hard because there's only a single issue out a month and the pacing and structure of this final arc was more like a Sonic Universe story arc than ever. Thankfully it was focused on a single conflict and there was a bit more set-up beforehand to ensure that it wasn't as rushed as those usually tended to be. It still had the one-page spread of the big bad at the end of the issue before the rushed climax problem but it was spread out a bit more so it didn't feel as bad as SU usually did in that department.

I won't say that it was "easy" but I can see how it would feel that way. Metal Sonic did come off more like a big buffoon with flowery language more so than ever. He's so huge that his only recourse when they're picking at him is to do a spinneroni to get them all to fall off his body. 

This is an problem that could so easily be solved if there was either more room and more time but he doesn't have that so he's gotta be better about fitting all this in.

The best thing for me was the introduction of Dr. Starline here though. I really like his design and I'm already a sucker for villains so, I feel as though I'm pumped and ready to go pretty much immediately for whatever it is he's got planned. I just hope he knows what he's dealing with here, considering Eggman, when he's under Ian's thumb, tends not to be the most grateful of people.

It'll be sad to see Mr. Tinker go though... sigh...

Also, I love how they're running with Charmy being able to lift both Espio and Vector. Abnormal strength in 6-year-old children is a go. 

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12 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

latest?cb=20161116213400giphy.webp

There's a case to be made that those are pants, and or falls into the cat suit category with Rouge, Bunnie.... etc.

 

 

 

(Oops this was supposed to be an edit to my last post. My bad.)

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7 hours ago, QuantumEdge said:

 

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As for the twist, it's a pretty gritty one, surprisingly.  Although Starline's design of being Sonic character by way of the Shonen scientist villain is an experiment too far.  Not a big fan.

 

What do you mean?

5 hours ago, DaddlerTheDalek said:
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Didn't expect a new villain like Dr. Starline in this issue.

 

He was mentioned in the previous issue.

1 hour ago, Cuz said:
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Well we're getting a double length issue for #13 (I can still call those super specials, right?), and the solicit comes off like it could have some elements of falling action, or an after party.

 

We are?! Turn up!

1 hour ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

I know the mandates that males never wear pants, but I don't think it's specifically a mandate that females HAVE to wear lower clothing. Besides, SEGA does pay attention to things, they aren't that incompetent. 

The FFs redesign was apparently a move by Ian himself, and IIRC, he was going to give Sally her Reboot clothes if she was going to be un-roboticized. I think it's a view that Ian himself has.

Considering some people were complaining about the SatAm designs and especially how the comic barely resembled the games for a while, it was sorta mandated regardless.

1 hour ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

I suppose the lack of fleshing out and proper buildup to this whole arc is the reason for that; there's no real thematic meaning to all of this, it's just a fight and that's it. 

I mean, I suppose that's not really much of an issue if this comic is aimed at a younger demographic, in which case you can get away with witty dialogue and flashy action scenes with no real meaning behind all of it, but there's not much else here if you're looking for anything deeper. 

Pretty much.

There's a few nice moments, at least.

1 hour ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

Looks like we all hate IDW Sonic now.

I don't know if it's even worth reading year two, if it's gonna be the exact same shallow, souless advertisment.

Worst part, I don't know who to blame. Is it SEGA and their stupid, goddamn mandates? Is it Ian being burnt out, or just flat-out not caring? Is it the incompetence of the editors, or IDW itself? 

Uh, can you not?

49 minutes ago, Cuz said:

I honestly feel it's just expectations being set too high for such a short span of time. Archie wasn't anything to write home about until at least issue 25 in my eyes.

This stone just needs time to gather moss.

Issue 25 was two decades ago, dude.

6 minutes ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

It's not the fault of the issue itself though. It's more due to the fallout of Issue 10. This issue felt like a nice resolution to a fight that should have been a bit longer than this. One of the things that helps to make the fights in something like this seem more climactic is when they last an entire issue, which this did, so that was a plus. However, the set-up kind of warranted something a bit more in my opinion.

More or less.

6 minutes ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

I won't say that it was "easy" but I can see how it would feel that way. Metal Sonic did come off more like a big buffoon with flowery language more so than ever. He's so huge that his only recourse when they're picking at him is to do a spinneroni to get them all to fall off his body. 

 

Yeah, he was the big offender of that doof aspect I mentioned.

7 minutes ago, Cuz said:

(Oops this was supposed to be an edit to my last post. My bad.)

It's fine.

Notice my gif didn't render, though.

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I certainly am not hating any of this. The Battle on Angel Island was a let-down for me, overall, as my impressions on issues 9 and 10 were "Meh" and "What? Why?".

Issue 11, I like the most but only really because it felt like a competently done resolution to a fight that should have felt bigger and more impressive than this. However, that's a problem I attribute to the issues that came before. 

There are some nice moments, some nice drawings, and some nice expressions but on the whole, nothing here was surprising or unpredictable. 

Metal Sonic's got the Master Emerald. We got to Angel Island. We beat him up. We take it back. The End.

That's what you get when you cuddle the entire cast together and sick them on a big target.

Hopefully we can start getting into the stuff that makes use of them as individual characters now. This Resistance thing is one of the worst things to happen to the characters. If stripping them of their identities by having them be the 2nd or 3rd member of "Team Sonic" or "Team Dark" was bad, just think of how bad regulating everyone to "6th member of the Resistance" is gonna be. No thank you.

I have more faith in Ian than that though.

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36 minutes ago, Cuz said:

I honestly feel it's just expectations being set too high for such a short span of time. Archie wasn't anything to write home about until at least issue 25 in my eyes.

Archie Sonic wasn't following up on decades worth of material, with a bunch of staff already firmly experienced with the series.

And regardless of Archie Sonic, a good comic should be able to hook you with just one issue. We're already flooded with more comics and games and shows and so on than we can handle; if something doesn't make a strong first impression, who's going to want to wait years to see if it gets better rather than move on to something else?

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2 hours ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

Looks like we all hate IDW Sonic now.

I don't. I've said multiple times now that I enjoy it.

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1 hour ago, Diogenes said:

Archie Sonic wasn't following up on decades worth of material, with a bunch of staff already firmly experienced with the series.

And regardless of Archie Sonic, a good comic should be able to hook you with just one issue. We're already flooded with more comics and games and shows and so on than we can handle; if something doesn't make a strong first impression, who's going to want to wait years to see if it gets better rather than move on to something else?

The stupid people like us who continue to indulge in something that we actively do not enjoy.  :V

 

On the real tip though, like I said; I'm almost positive this comic is mostly to drawn in younger and newer fans to the series, who let's be real, likely do not care about things like story structure and proper characterization and all that and are mostly fine with just watching flashy fight scenes. The only people I can see being really turned off by this are adults who went into this comic expecting it to be more thought provoking.

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1 hour ago, Diogenes said:

who's going to want to wait years to see if it gets better rather than move on to something else?

Well my secret is that don't read these month to month like a slow IV drip, and instead wait until there's a bit of a backlog. 

6 minutes ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

On the real tip though, like I said; I'm almost positive this comic is mostly to drawn in younger and newer fans to the series, who let's be real, likely do not care about things like story structure and proper characterization and all that and are mostly fine with just watching flashy fight scenes. The only people I can see being really turned off by this are adults who went into this comic expecting it to be more thought provoking.

Good point, and one day those kids will grow up and with any luck the materiel will grown with them. ;)

Though at that point I have to wonder if maybe I'm patient to a fault? 

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I feel like the focus on combat was the result of every single character being gradually introduced and remaining involved throughout the course of the arc.  It was important that everyone get their moment in the climax and that takes up a LOT of time.  Considering the earlier comics with their more restrained casts didn't have this issue, I imagine that they'll be able to reel it back a bit.  The only difficulty comes from the fact that with this comic only coming out once (twice?) a month or so, it may end up being a long time before fans get to see a favourite character again.  But that's just due to the quantity of them really... an issue Sonic Team's years of games have lumped the writers with rather than any fault on their part.

I liked the attempt at Sonic's real concern as to whether Tails survived the last push against Metal - was sadly a bit rushed in execution due to being contained in a single panel.  But I'm glad they're thinking about stuff like that, it shows promise for future issues where they have a bit more breathing room.

 

I'm kinda sad that Mr. Tinker is leaving us in that kinda "aw man why can't everything just be nice for everyone" way but we knew it was happening eventually lol.  Dr. Starline's design feels a little too fancy for an official Sonic character I won't lie, but will be interesting to see how he goes and I LOVE his name.  Really strikes a first impression.

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