Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[Big Panda]

3 minutes ago, Polkadi said:

I think I'm rambling at this point.

Okay so, issue 1 and 4 are being reprinted, and they get an exclusive cover too. I thought they were the only ones being reprinted due to this.
But then I find issue 2 and 3 are also bring reprinted, but they do not have an exclusive cover to go with their reprints.
It was to my understanding that all reprinted issues get an exclusive cover, but that now seems to be wrong.

I’ve been assuming they are getting exclusive covers, they just haven’t been shown yet.

[StaticMania]

52 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

I guess they didn't even want that, they just wanted blaze. Some detractors compared tangle to scrappy doo.

Um, unless she's the rowdy niece to one of the already existing characters, that comparison is less than accurate.

[DabigRG]

5 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

Some detractors compared tangle to scrappy do. 

 

What's funny about that is that that's kinda how she was described in that one big article-profile--with the same word, in fact.

[Big Panda]

https://sonicsourceblog.wordpress.com/2018/05/02/issue-4-sells-out-2nd-print-new-cover/

A new tidbit concerning the boxset has been revealed: along with the previously stated sketch variant for issue 1, the other issues will have “virgin” covers, which are just the Tyson Hesse art without the logos.

To reiterate, this boxset will contain 5 comics: 2 copies of issue 1 (sketch and virgin covers) and issues 2 to 4 with virgin covers.

The “virgin” covers can be seen here.

[NikoS]

I hope the boxset releases on Amazon, or the SEGA shop, so i can buy it, it's great way to own the start of this new series.

[SoNich]

11 hours ago, Ernest-Panda said:

I’ve been assuming they are getting exclusive covers, they just haven’t been shown yet.

The reprints will all be variant covers. Issue #1-3's second prints will be the Hesse cover with an all white background like has been shown for #1. Issue #4 will be alternate art by Evan Stanley with a white background to match the 2nd  printing style. The 3rd printing of issue #1 will be the same as the 2nd except the issue # box in the top left corner will be a different color. David Mariotte said he thinks it will be orange instead of red. 

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

First issue's RI-B cover concepts-

   

Last ones kinda cute!

[Sonic Fan J]

7 hours ago, Fusion-Ellipsis said:

First issue's RI-B cover concepts-

   

Last ones kinda cute!

It is. My favorite is the second one though fleshed out and colored the first would probably easily beat out the others for me.

[Sonic Fan J]

On 5/2/2018 at 12:48 AM, Shadowlax said:

I guess they didn't even want that, they just wanted blaze. Some detractors compared tangle to scrappy do. 

Well I can see that.

That viewpoint is always interesting to me though as I find when a character is by themselves it tends to leave them looking very 2-dimensional. My only way of trying to comprehend it is just figuring that that 2-dimensional representation is highlighting what those fans most like about the character or that they simply are selfish and obsessive which is a horrible way to think about people.

Me personally, I'm not a Blaze fan but if she can entertain me in an outing of hers I'll be happy. That said, without Tangle I don't think she would have been able to do so as she would have just been a fire slinging Sonic and had even less personality come across the page to me than Knuckles did in Issue 3. Perhaps that's part of why I liked Tangle so much as she allowed Blaze to demonstrate more facets of her personality and show just how different she is from Sonic. Looking at it with my critical eye however it kind of shows that Blaze and Knuckles can be difficult to write for however as both Tails and Amy showed numerous facets to their personality even though Sonic alone was their primary source of interaction. This leads me to ask though if the difficulty in writing them stems from limitations in their characters or if they are just not compatible with a Sonic focused adventure? Perhaps once the whole gang has interacted with Tangle and I've seen other characters like Shadow, Rouge, and the Chaotix I'll be able to revisit this question and see what my thought are then.

 

EDIT

Sorry for the double post. I was browsing my notifications and did not realize that I was the last poster here.

[RedFox99]

47 minutes ago, Sonic Fan J said:

Looking at it with my critical eye however it kind of shows that Blaze and Knuckles can be difficult to write for however as both Tails and Amy showed numerous facets to their personality even though Sonic alone was their primary source of interaction. This leads me to ask though if the difficulty in writing them stems from limitations in their characters or if they are just not compatible with a Sonic focused adventure?

Your lines there intrigued me as I heard somewhere that Ian said that Blaze cannot really carry a story on her own. I feel that her and Knuckles could benefit from stories that either help expand their personalities with showing some more personal stuff like hobbies.

[Sonic Fan J]

9 minutes ago, RedFox99 said:

Your lines there intrigued as I heard somewhere that Ian said that Blaze cannot really carry on her own. I feel that her and Knuckles could benefit from stories that either help expand their personalities with showing some more personal stuff like hobbies.

That's fairly interesting, though I can easily see it. For example, my personal interpretation of Sonic is as an aloof introvert whose attitude problem is a direct result of that. Now, considering Blaze's story for Rush demonstrates her as an aloof introvert with an attitude problem of her own we have a parallel between the two that we can explore to see why Sonic can work on his own and Blaze can't. To simplify, neither actually can. What makes Sonic seem to work on his own is an inherent difference in philosophies between the two characters. Like Knuckles before her Blaze is possessed of a powerful sense of duty that she puts before all else and the two of them are only considered good by the virtue of their roles of being a guardian and not having any intention to do others harm unless it is in relation to their duty. Conversely, Sonic has no true sense of duty and instead is an adventurer who will chase the wind and go wherever his feet will take him. This creates a sense of freedom and discovery that makes the audience want to see where he will go next and what sights he will see and creates an initial investment that's easy to latch onto. But to further the audience being able to root for Sonic and find him sympathetic he is the primary opposition against Eggman (it's part of why Eggman has to be a world class threat), and has a strong sense of justice and a heart of gold that makes it impossible for him to ignore those who are being oppressed or need a hand. His attitude problem additionally makes him flawed but also is what makes him cool because being as aloof as he is makes him appear larger than life and as something to aspire to or take after like Tails is supposed to. Blaze in contrast when left on her own is all about her duty and requires adventure either coming to her or her duty taking her out to adventure. In either case though Blaze does not take the initiative and it is what makes her a character that can not stand on her own, or at least in my analysis. That said, Blaze is not alone in this conundrum as Knuckles actually shares the same problem and it is why there are so many problems around his character. Roughly, it is as Ian Flynn says; they can't carry on their own.

[DabigRG]

 

55 minutes ago, Sonic Fan J said:

 That said, without Tangle I don't think she would have been able to do so as she would have just been a fire slinging Sonic and had even less personality come across the page to me than Knuckles did in Issue 3. Perhaps that's part of why I liked Tangle so much as she allowed Blaze to demonstrate more facets of her personality and show just how different she is from Sonic. Perhaps once the whole gang has interacted with Tangle and I've seen other characters like Shadow, Rouge, and the Chaotix I'll be able to revisit this question and see what my thought are then.

 

Which is funny considering, had she been characterized as most of the promotional stuff described her, Tangle could've just as easily been left out in favor of just having Sonic.

53 minutes ago, Sonic Fan J said:

That said, without Tangle I don't think she would have been able to do so as she would have just been a fire slinging Sonic and had even less personality come across the page to me than Knuckles did in Issue 3. Perhaps that's part of why I liked Tangle so much as she allowed Blaze to demonstrate more facets of her personality and show just how different she is from Sonic. Looking at it with my critical eye however it kind of shows that Blaze and Knuckles can be difficult to write for however as both Tails and Amy showed numerous facets to their personality even though Sonic alone was their primary source of interaction. This leads me to ask though if the difficulty in writing them stems from limitations in their characters or if they are just not compatible with a Sonic focused adventure?

Which is weird considering Knuckles is the more dynamic/complex character and Mr. Flynn is usually pretty good with him, but that's another issue with that...issue in general.

[RedFox99]

@Sonic Fan J Given what you said, would there be a way to help out Blaze and Knuckles? With Knuckles, you can have Chaos guard the ME and Knuckles likes to treasure hunt, so he has both a valid reason to be away from the ME and a hobby. Sadly, Blaze has neither.

[Razule]

16 minutes ago, RedFox99 said:

@Sonic Fan J Given what you said, would there be a way to help out Blaze and Knuckles? With Knuckles, you can have Chaos guard the ME and Knuckles likes to treasure hunt, so he has both a valid reason to be away from the ME and a hobby. Sadly, Blaze has neither.

Coconut Crew and Marine

Inter-dimensional parkour

Edited May 3, 2018 by Razule

[DabigRG]

5 minutes ago, Razule said:

Coconut Crew and Marine

Inter-dimensional parkour

I was gonna suggest that myself.

Well, 15% of the first anyway.

[RedFox99]

20 minutes ago, Razule said:

Coconut Crew and Marine

Inter-dimensional parkour

I guess she could warm up to the idea of them taking care of Sol emeralds. 

Maybe she can get into athletics as well.

[Sonic Fan J]

29 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Which is funny considering, had she been characterized as most of the promotional stuff described her, Tangle could've just as easily been left out in favor of just having Sonic.

I'm so glad she wasn't because what she was instead, the in over her head ball of goofiness, was utterly enjoyable and I hope she stays that way for as long as possible.

31 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Which is weird considering Knuckles is the more dynamic/complex character and Mr. Flynn is usually pretty good with him, but that's another issue with that...issue in general.

As well as I've see Flynn write Knuckles in the past I haven't read most of his work with Knuckles in the Archie comics and have mostly only seen him bouncing off of other characters like Sonic, Amy, and Shadow. No doubt he is very enjoyable in those interaction and it is part of the reason I found him being just reduced to punching things in IDW Issue 3 disappointing.

24 minutes ago, RedFox99 said:

@Sonic Fan J Given what you said, would there be a way to help out Blaze and Knuckles? With Knuckles, you can have Chaos guard the ME and Knuckles likes to treasure hunt, so he has both a valid reason to be away from the ME and a hobby. Sadly, Blaze has neither.

Investment. 

There has to be something that they are investigated in that would send them out on an adventure or keep them adventuring. As you say Knuckles is a treasure hunter and has Chaos to defend the Master Emerald when he is away. He also has his envy of Sonic's freedom and his rivalry with the Blue Blur as personal investments when he is away from Angel Island. Now, if you use Chaotix's Japanese story you can consider that Knuckles will leave Angel Island as part of his duty and suddenly you can have adventures that stem from him treasure hunting under the excuse that he's just doing his duty when really he's just relishing in his hobby and being away from the island at that time. This also allows the audience to sympathize with Knuckles because you know he has to go back eventually and so seeing Knuckles enjoy himself and unravel the lore of the world while doing so which could still inadvertently tie into his duty feels more rewarding even when he inevitably has his bittersweet return home to Angle Island. Making Knuckles sympathetic in this way would make his adventures that much more significant even if they are relatively simple in nature as it plays on his desire for freedom as well as his strong sense of duty.

Looking at Blaze now, it's a lot harder as Blaze does not really have a desire for freedom like Knuckles does. So lets look at one of Blaze's problems and see what we can find.

Isolation.

That is the key behind Blaze's dedication to her duty and her own aloof attitude. Her flames and her own fear of how they would be perceived in conjunction with her duty left her horribly isolated. When she met Cream though that changed everything and led to her eventually opening up and learning more about herself in the process. This in turn allowed her to meet Marine and the Coconut crew who she seems to be at least comfortable around enough to actually be willing to yell at Marine for her antics (even Sonic couldn't do that). So from this we could deduce that Blaze harbors a desire to connect with people but still chooses her duty over herself. As she does not have someone like Knuckles with Chaos, this starts to limit her options to get out and explore. However, she is a princess and that means that she has political responsibilities in addition to her duty as guardian of the Sol Emeralds. It is here that she can find her excuse to get out in the world and go on adventures. There is no better way to protect her charge than by going out and brokering peace between nations (possibly even worlds if she finds herself traveling to Sonic's which could also open up economic ventures) and rooting out potential threats to the Sol Emeralds. Where her own personal adventures can take form is by her taking time between political meetings to go out and interact with people and help them out with their problems, like with Tangle, and learning more about the world she lives in. It would send her out on adventures, not undermine her duties, takes advantage of her being a princess, is great for world building, and allows her to discover new things about the world and herself. In this way the audience could join Blaze on her adventures and be invested in seeing her character grow as well as desiring to see where her adventures will take her next and how it would effect her character and the world around her. It may be a bit too ambitious an approach for SEGA but I could easily see it being explored in the comics and takes Blaze from needing other characters even while needing them because she is her own motivation for going out on the world and her growth is what makes her carry the story.

[Sega DogTagz]

Blaze also isn't tied to a single location like Knuckles is. While the Master Emerald must remain on Angel Island to do its job, there is nothing to say that Blaze can't carry the Sol Emeralds around with her. Nothing in her world demands their usage, and so long as they are in the possession of someone who understands and controls their power, her dimension is safe from catastrophe. There is little stopping her from shoving the gemstones in her pocket and going for a stroll. Her status as guardian doesn't inhibit her ability to travel.

I think the main reason Blaze struggles to carry a story on her own, is that her character flaws are... too devastating. Stuff like her fear of heights is endearing. We relate to it and it helps ground the character as she struggles through it. But her anger issues are outright crippling. To the point where she knows its a problem, but still can do little to fully keep it in check. Blaze will charge to her death like a Bull to a red flag under proper provocation, something each of her major enemies is well aware of and capable of exploiting.

 

Thats the biggest difference between Sonic and Blaze to me. Whereas Sonic's character flaws actually serve to help his adventures. His stubbornness, his aggressiveness, his simpleness - Blaze's flaws will be the untimely end of hers. She needs a second character by her side to kind of help temper that rage, or at the very least help clean up after something she does backfires.

[Sonic Fan J]

1 minute ago, Sega DogTagz said:

Blaze also isn't tied to a single location like Knuckles is. While the Master Emerald must remain on Angel Island to do its job, there is nothing to say that Blaze can't carry the Sol Emeralds around with her. Nothing in her world demands their usage, and so long as they are in the possession of someone who understands and controls their power, her dimension is safe from catastrophe. There is little stopping her from shoving the gemstones in her pocket and going for a stroll. Her status as guardian doesn't inhibit her ability to travel.

I think the main reason Blaze struggles to carry a story on her own, is that her character flaws are... too devastating. Stuff like her fear of heights is endearing. We relate to it and it helps ground the character as she struggles through it. But her anger issues are outright crippling. To the point where she knows its a problem, but still can do little to fully keep it in check. Blaze will charge to her death like a Bull to a red flag under proper provocation, something each of her major enemies is well aware of and capable of exploiting.

 

Thats the biggest difference between Sonic and Blaze to me. Whereas Sonic's character flaws actually serve to help his adventures. His stubbornness, his aggressiveness, his simpleness - Blaze's flaws will be the untimely end of hers. She needs a second character by her side to kind of help temper that rage, or at the very least help clean up after something she does backfires.

On the flip side though it is a great starting point for an adventure for Blaze. Watching her charge headlong into a trap and the adventure that stems from it creates audience sympathy out of a desire to watch Blaze grow, learn from her mistakes, and overcome the adversity presented by her decisions.

As for the Sol Emeralds being possible to take with her, it still doesn't address her lack of investment in anything but her duty. What reason would she have to take the initiative and begin an adventure on her? Not be forced into an advneture by circumstance but one she decides to begin entirely on her own because it fits some goal of her own. In a series with a number of adventurers at its core, a character like Blaze who demonstrates no desire to adventure of her own volition is extremely hard to make use of on her own. even Shadow could be given an excuse to adventure on his own out of say a desire to see the world that Maria so wanted to herself and asked Shadow to protect. I could also use Silver from any timeline with a devastated future as an example since seeing the world in great shape and all of the wonders that it holds would help further his resolve to save his future. A lack of a desire to adventure is a fairly crippling flaw that Blaze possesses and makes her very difficult to use in a solo outing in a franchise where adventure is as much a part of the narrative as facing Eggman.

[Sega DogTagz]

2 minutes ago, Sonic Fan J said:

On the flip side though it is a great starting point for an adventure for Blaze. Watching her charge headlong into a trap and the adventure that stems from it creates audience sympathy out of a desire to watch Blaze grow, learn from her mistakes, and overcome the adversity presented by her decisions.

As for the Sol Emeralds being possible to take with her, it still doesn't address her lack of investment in anything but her duty. What reason would she have to take the initiative and begin an adventure on her? Not be forced into an advneture by circumstance but one she decides to begin entirely on her own because it fits some goal of her own. In a series with a number of adventurers at its core, a character like Blaze who demonstrates no desire to adventure of her own volition is extremely hard to make use of on her own. even Shadow could be given an excuse to adventure on his own out of say a desire to see the world that Maria so wanted to herself and asked Shadow to protect. I could also use Silver from any timeline with a devastated future as an example since seeing the world in great shape and all of the wonders that it holds would help further his resolve to save his future. A lack of a desire to adventure is a fairly crippling flaw that Blaze possesses and makes her very difficult to use in a solo outing in a franchise where adventure is as much a part of the narrative as facing Eggman.

 

While all that is true, you do have to balance that out with her reality. Most of Blaze's penchant on staying put early on in the games was due to her complete and total social isolation and her permanent defensive posture against Nega. The former started to fix itself after her introduction to Sonic and Cream in the original Rush. In SRA, she comes across as very knowledgeable about the peoples and places of her world and is capable of interacting with them as well - not in a way all too different from a seasoned adventurer.

She does lack the typical desire for adventuring that is apparent in most of the cast, but that doesn't exactly stop her from going on said aventures. Thanks to not being tied down, it wouldn't take much to kickstart a journey. Be it a desire to bring justice to some misguided sap, or even a quest to uncover more of the secrets of her world. Shoot, she's the type of gal who could pack up and leave on a mission of self improvement at the drop of a hat. That is a kind of adventure - and just like everything else, whatever she uncovers or stumbles into along the way only adds to that.

[RedFox99]

16 minutes ago, Sega DogTagz said:

Shoot, she's the type of gal who could pack up and leave on a mission of self improvement at the drop of a hat.

Maybe something happens where she finds her temper interfering with her duties? 

[Sega DogTagz]

A sonic character can't go to the grocery store without running afoul of something worthy of starting an adventure (*cough*Amy-in-SA1*cough*). Its probably less important that Blaze seeks out adventure and more important that she has the will and tenacity to investigate them as they come.
 

Which she does.

[Sonic Fan J]

51 minutes ago, Sega DogTagz said:

Shoot, she's the type of gal who could pack up and leave on a mission of self improvement at the drop of a hat.

This right here is what we need to see out of her. This is that desire to go adventuring and that investment that I'm talking. It's small but it could easily snowball and once it snowballs how her unique character traits play against what she is experiencing is what will provide the hook to keep the audience interested in her and her adventure. In the case of Flynn writing for the comics though you would also have to explore how this motivation plays off of the other characters. In the case of Tales and Amy it could make her out to be a role model of sorts while Knuckles could be turned away from it because it reminds him too much of his own responsibilities. As for Sonic the way he just gets better doing what he does could create a point of conflict for Blaze where she sees Sonic's own self confidence as an attack against her more hardworking ways. It is a great way to explore her character and show her standing on her own and bringing something different to the cast. I'm glad you brought it.

[Shadowlax]

I feel like the way to solve the blaze problem is simple and you all are overthinking it. There is , a wall blocking this problem. 

How you solve the blaze problem: Have more adventures that take place in her world, that require her to deal with new people and learn things. That also expand her world, and gives you more perspective on who she is. That literally solves all proposed problems.

 

Flaw: Sega barely wants to use blaze, and doesn't want to use her world. 

[Sega DogTagz]

22 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

Flaw: Sega barely wants to use blaze, and doesn't want to use her world. 

Flaw #2

Sega would have to stop ducking the Eggman Nega issue and actually figure something out about what to do with him.