Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[MetalSkulkBane]

Remember that scene where everyone attacks Eggman? According to interview everyone got wisp matching their personalities. That tells me 3 things

1) Vector didn't picked Magenta (music note) and that's just wrong.

2) Should I be worried that Omochao picked bomb? At least Void wouldn't make me image Omo preparing terrorist attack.

2) Leave it to Big to pick invisibility, A.K.A. only non-offensive Wisp. For all we know Big could won the race and no one saw it.

[Your Vest Friend]

I think the wording in the interview was wrong, but they are still matching in some way. Jade Ghost is green like Froggy, while Vector might be familiar with a companion who can freely cling to the walls... 

[Marco9966]

Some people on reddit also gave their opinion of the comic:

Other than that, here is a repost of issue 12's cover because the last post didnt show it:

[Salamander]

Regarding the decisions made for the story of the TSR tie-in comic...  Well, the game itself has a story mode; and I assume that will also make an attempt to explain why all the characters are around and what the point of it all is.  So my suspicion is that the writer of the adaptation wasn't given access to the game story and indeed was specifically told not to touch on those issues, because they'd be covered in the game instead.  All that really leaves is talking about the game mechanics and basic character interaction.

[Sonic Fan J]

2 hours ago, Marco9966 said:

Some people on reddit also gave their opinion of the comic:

Other than that, here is a repost of issue 12's cover because the last post didnt show it:

Sadly, after a conversation I've had in another about how Amy is supposed to be a Genki Girl seeing her boiled down to just excited isn't actually a negative to me. Honestly, just seeing her constantly cheerful and excited disposition was one of the highlights of the one shot for me.

Now that next month preview I don't have an answer to whether or not that is supposed to be the next issues cover, but I do know that is a sweet pic of Metal and that I'm mad that it's not in my digital copy on Kindle. I feel robbed honestly >n<

[Marco9966]

1 minute ago, Sonic Fan J said:

 I'm mad that it's not in my digital copy on Kindle. I feel robbed honestly >n<

Me too, the real copies have all the variant covers printed in a page, but never in the digital versions

[Shadowlax]

2 hours ago, FFWF said:

Regarding the decisions made for the story of the TSR tie-in comic...  Well, the game itself has a story mode; and I assume that will also make an attempt to explain why all the characters are around and what the point of it all is.  So my suspicion is that the writer of the adaptation wasn't given access to the game story and indeed was specifically told not to touch on those issues, because they'd be covered in the game instead.  All that really leaves is talking about the game mechanics and basic character interaction.

That's about where I am at + I believe the dialog in the game itself might just not be that great

[DabigRG]

This tie-in reminds me of the one for Sonic Dash.

Yeah, the dialogue is pretty weird and/or expository. Some work for what they are, but others are questionable. Would it be predictable to say Eggman has the best lines in this?

Also, it appears they were shown a full body render of Dodon Pa..

18 hours ago, VEDJ-F said:

 .

  Hide contents

Actually, there were quite a bit more subtle hints towards the bigger picture than I thought there'd be. Like, yeah, there's the obvious explaining of the mechanics as a tie-in, but there are bit that more outside that scope, like; 

-The stuff going toward the abduction plot said in the solicit. We have Dodon Pa here studying racing like aliens studied human behaviour in any 50's B-movie, but then there's Big's remarks about being separated from Froggy again. Now, I'm going to go ahead and say that Big being abducted from Froggy is a bit more likely than Froggy going on a space run. 

-The fact that team Vector is clearly as non-functional a team as Free Riders' team Rose. They all have very different goals and are probably together because the rules stipulate teams.

Also, I like looking at the Wisp choices in the Sentai shot. Some are just matched based on colour (Tails' Orange Rocket, Knuckles' Crimson Eagle. Silver's Grey Quake), some are more for the thematic match (Blaze's Red Burst, Omega's Cyan Laser, Rouge's Purple Frenzy, the Chao's Black Bomb) and those that mean something else (Big's Jade Ghost, Amy's Blue Cube, Vector's Pink Spikes). Considering that was the writer's doing as well, that's a neat touch from him.

 

Jade Ghost?

18 hours ago, Dejimon11 said:

 

  Hide contents

Was anybody else shocked that Eggman was by himself the whole time and didn't have a team? 

 

 Not really. From what we can tell, his team probably consists of Egg Pawns, which to my knowledge have seldom had much in the way of dialogue.

 

7 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Remember that scene where everyone attacks Eggman? According to interview everyone got wisp matching their personalities. That tells me 3 things

 

2) Should I be worried that Omochao picked bomb? At least Void wouldn't make me image Omo preparing terrorist attack.

2) Leave it to Big to pick invisibility, A.K.A. only non-offensive Wisp. For all we know Big could won the race and no one saw it.

Ch'yeah!

[Echidna Adventurer CC14]

I thought it was a fun enough read. Some of the dialogue was a bit weird, but otherwise about what I expected for a tie-in. I loved little moments like Shadow getting so into his and Sonic's little race (Accentuated by Adam Bryce Thomas' fantastic artwork and expressions) and Omega being distracted by revenge-mania at Eggman's presence. I hope the Team Adventure Mode in the actual game goes further into some of the little relationships teased in the book. (Namely Team Vector's hodgepodge line-up and motivations.)

[DabigRG]

Gotta love how they try to make Blaze seem majestic and underline how much she & completely someone else Silver don't really belong here.

[SBR2]

Read it. Meh.

It didn't really inspire any strong emotions in me one way or the other. There were some chuckle worthy jokes and it's nice to get some insight into the character of Dodonpa. 

I don't know. It was fine. Not something I'll think about again most likely. 

3 out of 5.

[Fire-N-Space]

I read the Team Sonic Racing comic and I really liked it the characters didn't feel one dimensional at all and Amy didn't have to hold herself back like in that IDW book when she gets excited.  

 

[PeterPancake]

 

My bad wrong thread 

[PublicEnemy1]

Let's talk about mandates. I think they're fucking stupid. They were bad enough in Post-Reboot Archie, but now they're even MORE strict. Not even Classic characters can be used. I understand Post-Reboot Archie because of Penders, but IDW has no excuse.

This is supposed to be a clean slate (which it kinda wasn't), and Ian is a highly trusted writer, why doesn't SEGA trust him with more creative freedom?

Remember in the very first IDW Sonic panel where Aaron Webber said that "no hard and fast rules will be thrown" and it's on a "case-by-case basis"? That was a goddamn lie, because like I said, IDW is on an even tighter leash.

I have a feeling the mandates are so strict is because SoJ is racist and doesn't like Americans working on their property, so they limit writers as much as possible. This claim isn't baseless, as SoA and SoJ have been fighting with each other since the 90's. It also gives that 4chan post some credence. (Yeah, I know Webber said it wasn't true, but it could be basic PR.)

[SBR2]

Honestly I don't really think they're as bad as everyone makes them out to be. 

Some if them are just regular quality control things like "Represent our brand properly" or "Don't make our mascot a blubbering mess".

I'll admit the "Classic characters can't appear" thing is a little odd but it isn't like the worst thing in the world IMHO.

[Multikaris]

6 minutes ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

Let's talk about mandates. I think they're fucking stupid. They were bad enough in Post-Reboot Archie, but now they're even MORE strict. Not even Classic characters can be used. I understand Post-Reboot Archie because of Penders, but IDW has no excuse.

This is supposed to be a clean slate (which it kinda wasn't), and Ian is a highly trusted writer, why doesn't SEGA trust him with more creative freedom?

Remember in the very first IDW Sonic panel where Aaron Webber said that "no hard and fast rules will be thrown" and it's on a "case-by-case basis"? That was a goddamn lie, because like I said, IDW is on an even tighter leash.

I have a feeling the mandates are so strict is because SoJ is racist and doesn't like Americans working on their property, so they limit writers as much as possible. This claim isn't baseless, as SoA and SoJ have been fighting with each other since the 90's. It also gives that 4chan post some credence. (Yeah, I know Webber said it wasn't true, but it could be basic PR.)

Well, there is the live-Action film (even though you may not count it due to being sucky, which if anything is likely to ensure Sonic Team’s death-grip remains in place or even tightens to Nintendo levels of oppression)

[PublicEnemy1]

3 minutes ago, Miragnarok said:

Well, there is the live-Action film (even though you may not count it due to being sucky, which if anything is likely to ensure Sonic Team’s death-grip remains in place or even tightens to Nintendo levels of oppression)

I think at this point, Nintendo would be a lot more looser than SEGA. At least they have the balls to kill off their own characters (only if for a trailer or temporarily) and even let Mario have more emotions than Sonic (such as him crying with Bowser at the end of Odyssey).

[Multikaris]

2 hours ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

I think at this point, Nintendo would be a lot more looser than SEGA. At least they have the balls to kill off their own characters (only if for a trailer or temporarily) and even let Mario have more emotions than Sonic (such as him crying with Bowser at the end of Odyssey).

I wouldn’t say “a lot”, because of the restrictions they put on the RPGs, and before the Mario animated film, all of their main series with strong alternate media outside of Japan-exclusive manga were second party. And SMA did have cartoony emotions on everyone, at least. 

 

(Didn’t include Boom because it was right before they got really strict)

[Fire-N-Space]

The mandates keep Ian Flynn and other writers from making the characters act differently from what Sega wants them to act like so hearing there's more of them makes me happy.

[Kuzu]

That was an alright issue. It's a tie in comic for children, not expecting A tier writing here.

[Heckboy]

39 minutes ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

even let Mario have more emotions than Sonic (such as him crying with Bowser at the end of Odyssey).

>sonic can't have emotions

wipe this meme from the face of the earth

Sonic's whole character is "cool, confident dude who never gives up". Simple as it is, that's still a character. He's not supposed to get overly emotional, and on the rare occasion he does it should have some impact.

The mandates are a meme. They've been exaggerated by fans over the years and turned into a kind of phantom used to deflect criticism. They do exist and some of them might seem a little limiting, but for the most part they're not THAT unreasonable for a licensed children's comic. They only become a problem if you tell stories that don't lend themselves to fulfilling those mandates. For instance, if you're going to write a comic where you can't imply that your main characters have aged (as was the case with the Archie reboot), then, I dunno, don't spend every issue doing flashbacks that include said main characters? Tell stories in the present?

[Razule]

48 minutes ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

I think at this point, Nintendo would be a lot more looser than SEGA. At least they have the balls to kill off their own characters (only if for a trailer or temporarily) and even let Mario have more emotions than Sonic (such as him crying with Bowser at the end of Odyssey).

They aren't even dead though, they're just mind controlled or something.

Sonic can tear up, he just can't blubber. 

I really don't think the mandates are that limiting to the stories Ian wants to tell.

[Heckboy]

Just now, Razule said:

They aren't even dead though, they're just mind controlled or something.

Sonic can tear up, he just can't blubber. 

But sobbing your eyes out is the only emotion.

[DabigRG]

33 minutes ago, Ivo the Coldsteel said:

>sonic can't have emotions

wipe this meme from the face of the earth

Sonic's whole character is "cool, confident dude who never gives up". Simple as it is, that's still a character. He's not supposed to get overly emotional, and on the rare occasion he does it should have some impact.

The mandates are a meme. They've been exaggerated by fans over the years and turned into a kind of phantom used to deflect criticism. They do exist and some of them might seem a little limiting, but for the most part they're not THAT unreasonable for a licensed children's comic. They only become a problem if you tell stories that don't lend themselves to fulfilling those mandates. 

To be fair, they were legitimately getting in the way of certain characters being used and/or certain stories being told.

[Diogenes]

1 hour ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

Let's talk about mandates.

Can we not? Because like Ivo the Coldsteel said it's basically just become a way for people to blame any decision they don't like on some monolithic "evil".

1 hour ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

I think they're fucking stupid. They were bad enough in Post-Reboot Archie, but now they're even MORE strict. Not even Classic characters can be used. I understand Post-Reboot Archie because of Penders, but IDW has no excuse.

How about the excuse of "Sega still owns Sonic and has the final say regarding anything they license him out for, just as they always have, and just as every company has always had with their IPs"?

1 hour ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

I have a feeling the mandates are so strict is because SoJ is racist and doesn't like Americans working on their property, so they limit writers as much as possible. This claim isn't baseless, as SoA and SoJ have been fighting with each other since the 90's. It also gives that 4chan post some credence. (Yeah, I know Webber said it wasn't true, but it could be basic PR.)

Going from "SoJ and SoA have feuded with each other in the past" to "SoJ is racist and is actively sabotaging a Western comic" is a pretty fucking huge leap dude. Is it not enough that they realized a hands-off approach allowed Archie Sonic to get as batshit as it did so they're keeping a closer eye on this one so it remains closer to their vision of the series?