Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[PublicEnemy1]

I was indeed disappointed in this issue. So far, there's barely any challenge for our blue blur. I like the banter, but there's not much there. I'm worried that this is SEGA's doing, and that they don't care about the older fans. I'm worried that they'll be the big, bad dictator corporation that I thought they'd be.

[RedFox99]

Just now, PublicEnemy1 said:

I was indeed disappointed in this issue. So far, there's barely any challenge for our blue blur. I like the banter, but there's not much there. I'm worried that this is SEGA's doing, and that they don't care about the older fans. I'm worried that they'll be the big, bad dictator corporation that I thought they'd be.

Out of all of the issues so far, #3 was my least favorite. I did like Sonic and Knuckles' interactions and how the wisps helped out, but I was disappointed that neither Rough nor Tumble and not do much advancement for who the main villain is. I'm wondering if the issues might benefit from increased number of pages.

[PublicEnemy1]

I still have hope in IDW, but if it turns out to be SEGA's fault, I'm gonna be pissed.

[DabigRG]

If it wasn't for her tweet about her OC cameos, I'm inclined makes me wonder if this issue was really done by Mr. Flynn and Ms. Hernandez.

[Dr. Detective]

Finally read the issue. I'll mirror the sentiment that it was my least favorite of the bunch. I still wouldn't call it bad in any way, shape, or form. It's just a gaggle of stuff I've mostly seen before. It does continue to be rather comforting seeing this version of Sonic being so much more likable to me. I was so intensely worried that I was going to hate him because I didn't really like Archie Sonic for the longest time. Even chilling out on him as things went on still didn't completely negate my fears but he's really selling his personality.

I liked Knuckles here too. That bit where he sees Rough and Tumble pose like the Ginyu Force and he reacts to it by saying "Look out. They're well coordinated." is a nice mixture of taking things seriously but also being kind of aloof. That kind of stuff works well with Knuckles. 

I've never been a fan of villains being beaten too easily so the resolution being as simple and cut and dry as it was did me no favors. I also found the explanation for the wisps to be weird but it also mirrors a lot of what Ian tends tended to do with the series so I could see why it was there. Most of why it's hard to swallow is the game's fault anyway. They still haven't provided a proper explanation for why they're still around. Sonic Runners saying that they liked the planet so they stayed behind kind of threw me for a loop since I'm fairly certain Yacker was the only one who went down to Earth and it was literally just to say goodbye. It would have made more sense to just say they wanted to stay with Sonic and Tails, which I guess isn't too much of a stretch. It would help if it was in material that more people had proper access to or something though.

I like Rough and Tumble by the way. When I first saw them, I was kind of worried it was just going to be Ian's way of shoving Bean and Bark back in but they've definitely got their own thing going here. Or at least the foundation for one. At the moment, I'm not too entirely sure what the point of them is or will be. I doubt it'll be some super awesome twist like the Franky and Iceberg situation from One Piece or whatever but time will tell.

We're still in the infancy.

[Shadowlax]

I kinda feel like everyone worried about pace, should get used to it untill there are more books announced.

[Red Hot Jack]

I suggested that Ian may want to use a stronger tone, balanced and not dark and gritty, but serious with quirky lines. I would take Forces as an example (leaving Infinite aside).

[Dash Speed]

8 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Finally read the issue. I'll mirror the sentiment that it was my least favorite of the bunch. I still wouldn't call it bad in any way, shape, or form. It's just a gaggle of stuff I've mostly seen before. It does continue to be rather comforting seeing this version of Sonic being so much more likable to me. I was so intensely worried that I was going to hate him because I didn't really like Archie Sonic for the longest time. Even chilling out on him as things went on still didn't completely negate my fears but he's really selling his personality.

I liked Knuckles here too. That bit where he sees Rough and Tumble pose like the Ginyu Force and he reacts to it by saying "Look out. They're well coordinated." is a nice mixture of taking things seriously but also being kind of aloof. That kind of stuff works well with Knuckles. 

I've never been a fan of villains being beaten too easily so the resolution being as simple and cut and dry as it was did me no favors. I also found the explanation for the wisps to be weird but it also mirrors a lot of what Ian tends tended to do with the series so I could see why it was there. Most of why it's hard to swallow is the game's fault anyway. They still haven't provided a proper explanation for why they're still around. Sonic Runners saying that they liked the planet so they stayed behind kind of threw me for a loop since I'm fairly certain Yacker was the only one who went down to Earth and it was literally just to say goodbye. It would have made more sense to just say they wanted to stay with Sonic and Tails, which I guess isn't too much of a stretch. It would help if it was in material that more people had proper access to or something though.

I like Rough and Tumble by the way. When I first saw them, I was kind of worried it was just going to be Ian's way of shoving Bean and Bark back in but they've definitely got their own thing going here. Or at least the foundation for one. At the moment, I'm not too entirely sure what the point of them is or will be. I doubt it'll be some super awesome twist like the Franky and Iceberg situation from One Piece or whatever but time will tell.

We're still in the infancy.

I really disagree, Knuckles was acting clueless to a humorous moment makes me wish Ian didn't jump on the bandwagon of making Knuckles the slow idiot for Sonic and friends amusement. Knuckles should be at least as easily amused as Sonic in funny situations like he is in the games. Remember when he like trolling Tails about Shadow being a ghost.

[Marco9966]

3 minutes ago, Dash Speed said:

Remember when he like trolling Tails about Shadow being a ghost.

When's that?

[Dash Speed]

On 4/18/2018 at 7:28 PM, lulzers said:

When the comic starts moving into more serious territory, how dark do you think it should be?

I think it should be less like Shadow the Hedgehog and more among the lines of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and the works of Don Bluth.

Mature but still action based for Shadow, Ian should take everything opposite to Sonic like less humor(deadpan snarking emphasis DEAD), more dramatic tension, anti hero being anti heroes and being less virtuous, and finally twice the amount of violence and action.

[MetalSkulkBane]

1 hour ago, Marco9966 said:

When's that?

Sonic Heroes, right after fight with Team Dark.

[DabigRG]

Who did the coloring in this issue?

1 hour ago, Dash Speed said:

I really disagree, Knuckles was acting clueless to a humorous moment makes me wish Ian didn't jump on the bandwagon of making Knuckles the slow idiot for Sonic and friends amusement. Knuckles should be at least as easily amused as Sonic in funny situations like he is in the games. Remember when he like trolling Tails about Shadow being a ghost.

To be fair, he was focused more on dealing with them as a threat that had managed to take over the town and been pushing around the villagers.

I agree that he has a somewhat similar sense of humor as Sonic, but I'll let it slide in instances like this.

[Dr. Detective]

3 hours ago, Dash Speed said:

I really disagree, Knuckles was acting clueless to a humorous moment makes me wish Ian didn't jump on the bandwagon of making Knuckles the slow idiot for Sonic and friends amusement. Knuckles should be at least as easily amused as Sonic in funny situations like he is in the games. Remember when he like trolling Tails about Shadow being a ghost.

Knuckles taking a humorous moment seriously blends the aloof side of him really well with the headstrong, no-nonsense attitude he takes in certain situations. This is fine. I feel its hyperbolic comparing this to him just being a slow idiot. There's layers to this sort of thing and Knuckles has always needed a balance that handles this side of his character well. Its always been apart of him in some form. Its just been flanderized towards mimicing actual idiocy instead of something like this.

Plus, this doesn't in anyway negate his ability to see the humorous side of things in other situations. Specificy when there's down time.

[Meta77]

Knuckles has never been overly bright in the games so being a bit aloof is fine. The artist for issue 2 was way better than 3s imo

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

So I got around to reading issue 3. This issue was alright. Not pretty good like the previous one but not too bad either. However in the middle the story felt like it was rushed a little, particularly during the fight scenes. I honestly thought the Wispons would be used in the story, but the closest we got was the Lightning Wispon being powered up. There were a few amusing moments though. Sonic was snarky when facing Rough and Tumble, dialogue and expression wise. Then we have Knuckles, who is taking things seriously.

 

Then we have the new villains, Rough and Tumble themselves  and they’re…okay. They’re the bully type characters who cause trouble in general. But this page here was hilarious. They rap and rhyme before getting into battle and Sonic’s reaction to that is freaking priceless. I am kinda hoping we can see them again. They somehow remind me more of Team Skull rather than Team Rocket, probably due to the rhyming and the punk like hairstyles and posing after that. The nods to Colors and Lost World were also nice.

Now for the art. The colors were done by Heather Breckel and I found it to be alright. But then we have the inking which is pretty bold on the characters. It’s thick and thin and sometimes it makes the stances look fine but other times it looks a bit too odd. Jen’s art style for the characters makes some of them look cute sometimes, like how some of the wisps in the capsules look like baby versions. (Heck the Yellow wisp looked like the baby version in the Sonic Runners game). There are times when the style looks good, such as Sonic’s smug look when they confront Rough and Tumble, although Knuckles’ angry expression upon seeing Rough and Tumble harass the villagers ends up looking slightly too cute (it’s probably the eyes).

Although I did notice that the proportions of the characters looked odd in several places, the last panel looked really weird due to the sizes. Why is Sonic small again? Maybe the face proportions look odd sometimes too. Jen Hen's artwork in Archie Sonic was alright and was gradually improving slowly but here it felt a little lacking. Though mostly imo I have a feeling that the bold inking style may have something to do with that. Some parts of this issue could have been better.

[StaticMania]

7 hours ago, Dash Speed said:

I really disagree, Knuckles was acting clueless to a humorous moment makes me wish Ian didn't jump on the bandwagon of making Knuckles the slow idiot for Sonic and friends amusement. Knuckles should be at least as easily amused as Sonic in funny situations like he is in the games. Remember when he like trolling Tails about Shadow being a ghost.

Knuckles can be too serious...that's like one of his defining character traits. Where that line ends is the ambiguos part when it comes to how he treats certain situations...

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

On 4/19/2018 at 4:03 PM, FFWF said:

Oh, turns out Sonic Stadium has the "silhouette" cover; for some reason I couldn't see it on the linked preview websites:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Spoiler

Really like the coloring in this one. Hoping for a raw version soon! Sonic standing like that looks badass.

 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Just finished reading Issue 3...and like the other issues. Meh. 

Spoiler

 

Moving on from the art issues people did mention from the previews, there's a few pros and cons story wise. Knuckles is portrayed pretty accurately here. I like the fact he was able to successfully one-shot a super badnik while Sonic comments he missed on the fun. Usually they'd show the two tag-teaming it for the sake of having Sonic "work together", but it was nice to have even an implication of why Knuckles' fighting skills and power makes him more or less the best strength wise where Sonic is the best in terms of agility for example.

Sonic and Knuckles' friendship is shown off really well in this issue too. I like how the two tease each other some times but there's no over the top reactions like X. Stuff like Knuckles simply giving an embarrassed look and shouting to focus on the fight in an attempt to get past that moment of making a mistake. Sonic asking Knuckles if he's alright after that stink bomb attack while Knuckles just tries to reassure him that he's fine while clearly looking destroyed. The two play off each other really well.

And I liked that the townspeople in this issue thankfully wasn't praising Sonic and Knuckles and claiming "oh getting enslaved was worth it to see them!". They're terrified to the fact they barely react when the two appear and even the villain duo of the issue practically say they have "no right to try invade their town". When there's a huge celebration at the end, it feels justified because Sonic and Knuckles literally beat a group of villains who was screwing with a town on a more personal and intimidation level as opposed to robots trying to hurt people. It gives a reason why none of them could fight back and why their spirits is crushed, and ultimately keeps the motivations of Sonic and Knuckles in check.

That said. Rough and Tumble absolutely suck. No. Seriously. They're as bland and as one-note as you can get. Sonic makes a reference to the Hooligans, saying these two make them look like a class act...and they do. Because Rough and Tumble are just generic asshole bully thugs who threaten people to do what they want and tries to act like they have an ego, only for Sonic/Knuckles to put them back into their place. It doesn't help that they literally don't put up a fight. One of them does a stink bomb move and it hits Knuckles...but Knuckles still manages to smash one of them directly into the floorboards before even needing to stop to get rid of the effects of the move. They try a meager attempt to fight back only for the wisps to revolt on them and then act like they'd be back as if they're some kind of huge and major threat when they were even easier to beat than the Super Badniks. I mean, at least those managed to corner Sonic and co a few times before getting beaten at least.

Oh - and side note. I don't like some of the implications in this issue. The biggest one being that Knuckles was supposedly stupid enough to leave the Master Emerald on Angel Island completely exposed. That felt like a decision by LW Knuckles, not the proper Knuckles that's meant to be written as naive but smart enough to not do overly dumb things like that. It's a massive gap in logic considering earlier in the issue, he is written properly in that he's naive enough to not understand why Rough and Tumble's poses are silly or stupid but he's supposedly stupid enough to keep object of massive power lying on Angel Island unguarded.

 

 

[PublicEnemy1]

Gadzooks, I REALLY hope the comic picks up after issue 4, so we (including me) can STOP being so fucking NEGATIVE.

[Razule]

20 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Spoiler

Oh - and side note. I don't like some of the implications in this issue. The biggest one being that Knuckles was supposedly stupid enough to leave the Master Emerald on Angel Island completely exposed.

 

Well.. he's been doing it for about a decade now with no negative repercussions

[Multikaris]

19 hours ago, PublicEnemy1 said:

I still have hope in IDW, but if it turns out to be SEGA's fault, I'm gonna be pissed.

Not likely, because Forces is a thing. Stakes are stakes.

[Big Panda]

I’m surprised nobody’s considering the possibility that

 

somebody’s watching the Master Emerald in Knux’s place. Like Relic and Fixit did in Archie.

[RedFox99]

Just now, Ernest-Panda said:

I’m surprised nobody’s considering the possibility that

  Hide contents

somebody’s watching the Master Emerald in Knux’s place. Like Relic and Fixit did in Archie.

Maybe Chaos or Tikal.

[StaticMania]

33 minutes ago, Razule said:

Well.. he's been doing it for about a decade now with no negative repercussions

It's quite surprising people still don't acknowledge that he's either not around because of the M.E. or he's just there and the M.E. might as well not exist until mentioned.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I think the latter doesn’t do the character or the logic any good.