Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

Well, I don't hate the design at least. And the focus on using her physical abilities as opposed to having some supernatural power earns points for me.

That said, I need to see her in action and what role is she going to actually play.

Yeah, admittedly, that is nice.

It's pretty obvious that part of the reason we haven't seen many new recurring characters in the games is because they kept feeling the need to escalate on the powers they have(Blaze, Silver, and Marine in particular).

1 hour ago, Razule said:

"

*yes, I know Madagascar is a thing but they're still kind of obscure*

Also, Zaboomafoo

1 hour ago, RedFox99 said:

I'm hoping that they don't put Tangle on a pedestal at the expense of Sonic or Blaze.

Yeah, all the marketing around her reeeally gives off that vibe.

I mean, you have this new character who you hype up with a gradually revealed silhouette, have them front and center in a Back to Back Badasses pose with Sonic himself on a cover, with the silhouette looking eerily similar to that of Face of the previous long-running American Sonic comic Sally Acorn, and have the official reveal of the character accompanied by not the only the return of fan-favorite Blaze the Cat(who she also seems to bear some stylistic resemblance to) in the same issue, but also release a direct press release directly comparing her to Classic game cast members Knuckles and Tails?

Uh huh....

1 hour ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

 

Only I think Sonic's smile is pretty creepy?

 

But again, time will tell (I was going to make a joke about "Tangled" movie, maybe point out that Blaze is basiclly Elsa comibined with Twilight Sparkle, etc,. But someone beat me to it few pages ago).

No, I'm surprised it took this long for someone to mention it.

 

Also, lol.

1 hour ago, VEDJ-F said:

Have you seen how many more artists have been confirmed for comic cover work? Rafa Knight, Jon Gray, Jamal Peppers, even Kieran Gates!

Who's the last one?

[GentlemanX]

3 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

We never knew it was a tail. Even the shadow made it liked like a glove with shading than actual fur, from what I saw at least. 

I'm talking about the concept art released today on IGN. I'd never have used the art they chose.

[Big Panda]

Kieran Gates is the Sonic Mania concept artist, for those asking.

[Tracker_TD]

2 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Who's the last one?

Sonic Mania. Also does the Uekawa-styled art for the Sonic social media.

[Marco9966]

Wouldn't it be awesome to have a cover by Uekawa himself too? THE man who renewed Sonic for modern design as we know.

[RedFox99]

9 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Yeah, all the marketing around her reeeally gives off that vibe.

I mean, you have this new character who you hype up with a gradually revealed silhouette, have them front and center in a Back to Back Badasses pose with Sonic himself on a cover, with the silhouette looking eerily similar to that of Face of the previous long-running American Sonic comic Sally Acorn, and have the official reveal of the character accompanied by not the only the return of fan-favorite Blaze the Cat(who she also seems to bear some stylistic resemblance to) in the same issue, but also release a direct press release directly comparing her to Classic game cast members Knuckles and Tails?

Uh huh....

Hopefully Ian doesn't make her into a Creator's Pet. 

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, Adamis said:

Well, I like her already

Was Tekno a big deal in StC?

1 hour ago, Johnny Boy said:

Does anybody think that Tangle could be a good choice for a power type character. When you think about it there are no official female power types.

Blaze was in Runners. She is one of the most overpowered characters in the series, after all.

1 hour ago, FFWF said:

I see her as similar to Sticks in Boom.  For a separate take on the franchise, it appears to be the done thing for that interpretation to have one high-profile character it can point to and very prominently say, "They're ours, you can't get them anywhere else."  It comes from a different context, but I suppose you could say the same of Sally in Archie.

Pretty much. I just hope she doesn't show up nearly as often as her, Chris, the Siblings, or Sally.

1 hour ago, Swing said:

Maybe Tangle is Blaze's own version of Tails. Both of them, Tails and Tangle, have an ability were they have to use their tails. 

1 hour ago, RedFox99 said:

Wasn't that supposed to be Marine's role?

 

1 hour ago, SpongicX said:

I don’t see why some are saying she must be the Tails of Blaze’s universe though, I’m pretty sure Marine already qualifies as that.

Yeah, she fit the standard set by Blaze far better than Dr. Nega did. No offense to him, but it's a good thing Rivals retroactively nipped that in the bud.

Can't say her having blue eyes is pleasing, though.

1 hour ago, Korke said:

 

And let us not fool ourselves. She will have a Sally personality - not due to any malice or ill-will, but because it's Flynn we are talking about, known for having quite the limited characterization.

The Woodsland Kingsmen say hi. Among others.

59 minutes ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

>Sega Purists burned.

>Thread has been praising the design.

 

Huh?

His profile pic should give you an idea of what type of person he is.

 

 

[MetalSkulkBane]

8 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Was Tekno a big deal in StC?

 

 

She's easily the most popular good guy introduced in that book (maaaaaabe second to Shortfuse the Cybernik, but I doubt that). She was a technician, sorta back-up Freedom Fighter (think Dulcy in Satam or Cream in Reboot). For a while she and Amy had their own adventures in backup stories.

Also, she was excellent flyer

Spoiler

 

Eat your heart out, Jet.

[Korke]

28 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

His profile pic should give you an idea of what type of person he is.

Come here and give me a hug.

 

Putting the baiting and shitposting aside, I just hope Blaze is not captured again in this forth issue. One of the images features only Sonic, Tails and Tangle... gives a bad omen.

[Kellan]

I’m surprised that more people aren’t outraged right now. Like, even if you don’t like the Freedom Fighters, the way they’ve been handling their possible exclusion should be setting off major alarm bells right now.

The Freedom Fighters have been around since 1993. For goodness sake, they’re older than Knuckles! And the comics were the only thing keeping these characters alive for over 2 decades. Meaning that if they don’t make an appearance in this new series, they’ll likely be gone forever.

The fact that they might not come back isn’t what I’m upset about right now. What bothers me is that IDW hasn’t given us any indication that they care about that at all. In fact, that stunt with the silhouette, whether or not it was intended to look like Sally, has just fully convinced me that they don’t care. These characters are a big part of the series history, are beloved by many, especially comics readers, and their fate is entirely in the hands of this new comic, and IDW clearly doesn’t see the importance of any of that.

Even if you don’t like the Freedom Fighters, doesn’t this bother you? They took long-running characters from the franchise and made a big game out of their fates. I think that shows a great deal of apathy on their part, and it doesn’t fill me with confidence in their ability to set up a whole new continuity for this series. And I feel like this should be worrying everyone.

I still have faith in Flynn and his team, but IDW itself has shown me that they clearly don’t care about the things that I care about, and I don’t know how to feel about that. Mostly, I’m just worried.

[Eurisko]

Anywhere to Pre-order these in the UK yet?  Ive checked Forbidden Planet but they've not got them listed.

[Big Panda]

Luckily my Forbidden Planet simply repurposed my existing Archie Sonic order (I checked)

[Diogenes]

6 minutes ago, Kellan said:

In fact, that stunt with the silhouette, whether or not it was intended to look like Sally, has just fully convinced me that they don’t care.

So even if they've done nothing wrong they're doing something wrong.

6 minutes ago, Kellan said:

Even if you don’t like the Freedom Fighters, doesn’t this bother you?

Nope. New comic, new world. No reason to expect these niche characters from a tangentially related work to be in it. A clear (de)confirmation would have been nice but I lose no sleep over the unknown being an unknown until they're ready to actually talk about it.

[Tracker_TD]

15 minutes ago, Kellan said:

The fact that they might not come back isn’t what I’m upset about right now. What bothers me is that IDW hasn’t given us any indication that they care about that at all. In fact, that stunt with the silhouette, whether or not it was intended to look like Sally, has just fully convinced me that they don’t care. These characters are a big part of the series history, are beloved by many, especially comics readers, and their fate is entirely in the hands of this new comic, and IDW clearly doesn’t see the importance of any of that.

Or rather, they don't fancy getting into legal bother. Even with SEGA owning these characters last I checked, given Penders tried to claim he has some ownership over Knuckles it's not exactly rocket-science why they're playing it safer. 

It's nothing personal - if I had the choice of using characters on relatively murky ground or characters who I know, for a fact, are 100% definitely not going to get me sued, I'd probably go for the latter.

Also what Dio said, basically.

[Salamander]

7 minutes ago, Kellan said:

Even if you don’t like the Freedom Fighters, doesn’t this bother you? They took long-running characters from the franchise and made a big game out of their fates. I think that shows a great deal of apathy on their part, and it doesn’t fill me with confidence in their ability to set up a whole new continuity for this series. And I feel like this should be worrying everyone.

This is absurd.  IDW have never mentioned the Freedom Fighters or any other Archie, SatAM, or other non-game character because they are completely irrelevant.  Never has there been any indication that IDW would be any kind of continuation, extension, or reboot of Archie.  It is not IDW's business to deconfirm every obscure character from other media they do not have a license to.  Nor did they design an ongoing character specifically to troll Archie fans for the space of less than a week for the benefit of a comic which won't be releasing for months.

This is the truth: Archie's legal incompetence burnt all bridges with Sega.

[Tornado]

18 minutes ago, Kellan said:

I’m surprised that more people aren’t outraged right now. Like, even if you don’t like the Freedom Fighters, the way they’ve been handling their possible exclusion should be setting off major alarm bells right now.

The Freedom Fighters have been around since 1993. For goodness sake, they’re older than Knuckles! And the comics were the only thing keeping these characters alive for over 2 decades. Meaning that if they don’t make an appearance in this new series, they’ll likely be gone forever.

The fact that they might not come back isn’t what I’m upset about right now. What bothers me is that IDW hasn’t given us any indication that they care about that at all. In fact, that stunt with the silhouette, whether or not it was intended to look like Sally, has just fully convinced me that they don’t care. These characters are a big part of the series history, are beloved by many, especially comics readers, and their fate is entirely in the hands of this new comic, and IDW clearly doesn’t see the importance of any of that.

Even if you don’t like the Freedom Fighters, doesn’t this bother you? They took long-running characters from the franchise and made a big game out of their fates. I think that shows a great deal of apathy on their part, and it doesn’t fill me with confidence in their ability to set up a whole new continuity for this series. And I feel like this should be worrying everyone.

I still have faith in Flynn and his team, but IDW itself has shown me that they clearly don’t care about the things that I care about, and I don’t know how to feel about that. Mostly, I’m just worried.

Sega has done all of these things. IDW is the unfortunate one who Sega dumped it off on.

[Kellan]

8 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

So even if they've done nothing wrong they're doing something wrong.

My point was more that they should have seen it coming, and that if they didn’t, that also shows a general lack of understanding of what some fans are looking for.

 

8 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

No reason to expect these niche characters from a tangentially related work to be in it. A clear (de)confirmation would have been nice but I lose no sleep over the unknown being an unknown until they're ready to actually talk about it.

Again, I’m not upset about the characters not being in, I’m bothered by the fact that they don’t seem to realize that people find the issue important. A “clear (de)confirmation” is all I’m asking for. That, and a little sense of awareness from IDW.

Edited January 24, 2018 by Kellan
changed wording

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, BlueSky said:

Well, that'd be interesting, but considering how many fans and the company people seem to feel towards '06 I can't picture Mr. Flynn trying that one, at least for quite some time from now.

Silver and to an extent Mephiles have made appearances since and it's not like there isn't other precedent to bring back less hitting characters.

1 hour ago, A Checker KING heavy engin said:

So is the first issue about amy asking sonic to rejoin the resistance? Do you guys think sonic will refuse and keep doing his own thing? Will they turn amy into sally 2.0?

You'd think that'd be the plot of the first issue. Be an excellent use of Tails.

1 hour ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

 Is there any real reason for Sonic to holding onto her tail when they're surrounded by robots?

It could be a reference to the Combi-Rings.

1 hour ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

I just realized that the order of character debuts mirrors the year of the game they initially debuted in.

 

Sonic 2 (1992) - Tails

Sonic CD (1993) - Amy

Sonic 3 (1994) - Knuckles.

Yep, caught that the moment I saw Amy instead of Knuckles.

[Tornado]

Just now, Kellan said:

My point was more that they should have seen it coming, and that if they didn’t, that also shows a general lack of understanding of what the fans are looking for.

 

Again, I’m not upset about the characters not being in, I’m bothered by the fact that they don’t seem to realize that people find the issue important. A “clear (de)confirmation” is all I’m asking for. That, and a little sense of awareness from IDW.

Again, Sega is the one pulling the strings here. It's entirely possible that any tone-deafness on IDW's part is a requirement put forth by Sega's increasingly heavy handed handling of the franchise in the past four years; and you're doing IDW a disservice by not taking that into account.

[RaginRonic]

And I'm here to say that having zero involvement of the Freedom Fighters in this new comic series is like having James Ellsworth be the WWE World or Universal Heavyweight Champion....it is NOT. GOOD. BUSINESS.

Frankly, it's not a money maker, and the dis-inclusion of the Freedom Fighters from the Sonic franchise is NEVER a good move to make if you want to make money. Simple as that.

And, to be honest, if I was to raise the Sally/Amy thing here, Amy Rose is kind of like a social enabler of Sonic's worst personality aspects. It's the same as a drug dealer who keeps enabling someone who buys that from them to keep them stoned out on that product.

Sally isn't that. She is, and has been since 1993, when we first saw her on TV, Sonic's Conscience. She's not afraid to tell Sonic what's right and what's wrong, unlike Amy who's too stupid about that type of social tenet to really care.

Sonic expands and improves as a character when around Sally, but doesn't around Amy.

Here's hoping the Freedom Fighters return EXTREMELY soon, so that way, Sonic has his balance back.

> = P

[Korke]

8 minutes ago, FFWF said:

This is absurd.  IDW have never mentioned the Freedom Fighters or any other Archie, SatAM, or other non-game character because they are completely irrelevant.  Never has there been any indication that IDW would be any kind of continuation, extension, or reboot of Archie.  It is not IDW's business to deconfirm every obscure character from other media they do not have a license to.  Nor did they design an ongoing character specifically to troll Archie fans for the space of less than a week for the benefit of a comic which won't be releasing for months.

This is the truth: Archie's legal incompetence burnt all bridges with Sega.

They did take the time to confirm that Archie Post-reboot created characters won't appear, though.

So my previous point still stands - it is a marketing strategy to not immediately brush those fans away, hoping they will keep waiting and eventually get attached to the book enough to not let go.

[Kellan]

8 minutes ago, FFWF said:

IDW have never mentioned the Freedom Fighters or any other Archie, SatAM, or other non-game character because they are completely irrelevant.

Yes, they have. They have taken direct questions about the Freedom Fighters before, and have told us to “wait and see”. I consider that enough for me to expect an answer.

1 minute ago, Tornado said:

Again, Sega is the one pulling the strings here. It's entirely possible that any tone-deafness on IDW's part is a requirement put forth by Sega's increasingly heavy handed handling of the franchise in the past four years; and you're doing IDW a disservice by not taking that into account.

That’s a pretty good point, and you’re completely right. I still think my point stands, but it is entirely possible that it’s Sega I’m upset with, not IDW.  In fact, given Sega’s track record…

Either way, I jumped to conclusions. My bad. I’m still worried, though.

[Kuzu]

4 minutes ago, Kellan said:

Yes, they have. They have taken direct questions about the Freedom Fighters before, and have told us to “wait and see”. I consider that enough for me to expect an answer.

Do you really expect them to give a detailed response on if they're going to appear or not? Especially after all of the legal bullshit they went through with those characters?

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, A Checker KING heavy engin said:

Return of the sexroll XD

SUPER SONIC 69, baby!

 

1 hour ago, SpongicX said:

 She could mow over enemies by spinning Tails with his tails spinning around like a weed eater, 

...What.

1 hour ago, Forte-Metallix said:

I'm really liking Tangle's design! Grabbing things with her tail reminds me of the scrapped rabbit prototype for Sonic:

Now I'm hoping Rough and Tumble turn out to be fossa! And YEAH, Blaze is back! 

Yeah, I was thinking of that myself.

1 hour ago, JosepHenry said:

Seriously, where's Rough and Tumble?

On the Issue 3 cover, most hopefully.

1 hour ago, Ernest-Panda said:

Kieran Gates is the Sonic Mania concept artist, for those asking.

Ah, of course.

1 hour ago, RedFox99 said:

Hopefully Ian doesn't make her into a Creator's Pet. 

I really doubt he will. Even in the case of Sally, it honestly came off less as him sharing Ben Hurst's favoritism and more like trying to get her back to the level she always had in the good ol days of the comic. 

 

1 hour ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

 

She's easily the most popular good guy introduced in that book (maaaaaabe second to Shortfuse the Cybernik, but I doubt that). She was a technician, sorta back-up Freedom Fighter (think Dulcy in Satam or Cream in Reboot). For a while she and Amy had their own adventures in backup stories.

Also, she was excellent flyer

  Hide contents

 

Eat your heart out, Jet.

Huh. 

I thought people like Johnny more?

Also, I heard people hated Shortfuse.

28 minutes ago, Kellan said:

I’m surprised that more people aren’t outraged right now. Like, even if you don’t like the Freedom Fighters, the way they’ve been handling their possible exclusion should be setting off major alarm bells right now.

The Freedom Fighters have been around since 1993. For goodness sake, they’re older than Knuckles! And the comics were the only thing keeping these characters alive for over 2 decades. Meaning that if they don’t make an appearance in this new series, they’ll likely be gone forever.

The fact that they might not come back isn’t what I’m upset about right now. What bothers me is that IDW hasn’t given us any indication that they care about that at all. In fact, that stunt with the silhouette, whether or not it was intended to look like Sally, has just fully convinced me that they don’t care. These characters are a big part of the series history, are beloved by many, especially comics readers, and their fate is entirely in the hands of this new comic, and IDW clearly doesn’t see the importance of any of that.

Even if you don’t like the Freedom Fighters, doesn’t this bother you? They took long-running characters from the franchise and made a big game out of their fates. I think that shows a great deal of apathy on their part, and it doesn’t fill me with confidence in their ability to set up a whole new continuity for this series. And I feel like this should be worrying everyone.

I still have faith in Flynn and his team, but IDW itself has shown me that they clearly don’t care about the things that I care about, and I don’t know how to feel about that. Mostly, I’m just worried.

That has somewhat sullied my first impression of Tangle, truthfully. Along with the other stuff.

[Wraith]

6 minutes ago, RaginRonic said:

 

 

 

And, to be honest, if I was to raise the Sally/Amy thing here, Amy Rose is kind of like a social enabler of Sonic's worst personality aspects. It's the same as a drug dealer who keeps enabling someone who buys that from them to keep them stoned out on that product.

Sally isn't that. She is, and has been since 1993, when we first saw her on TV, Sonic's Conscience. She's not afraid to tell Sonic what's right and what's wrong, unlike Amy who's too stupid about that type of social tenet to really care.

 

 

 

tails, knuckles, blaze, shadow, and even amy have all called out sonic before and are able to continue doing so