Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[Shadowlax]

That issue was way more disappointing that I thought it would be.

Holyshit, the issue with my favorite character in it was the worst issue with the worst story. 

And I probably wont see him focused on in a story for a good long time after this

Oh joy

And like outside of Me like shadow. To remove all my personal bias, its a not a great story. And horrible fight sequence, if you can even call that. If I wasn't so used to not trusting covers of comics, I would call the cover fraudulent even. Why the hell did they waste an issue on this shit. I kinda would prefered shadow not show up

[NikoS]

Spoiler

I could see it being Metal in disguise, but the fact that he refers to his "Master Plan", it have to be Eggman.

 

[LukA8]

I found the issue okay, as expected most of the pages are dedicated to the Sonic/Shadow confrontation and sadly Rouge didn't get much to do, even if she was cunning as ever.

Also, the following panel is not much of a spoiler, but is it just me or have Sega been trying a lot to push Charmy into a "cutesy" direction, as if to appeal to Cream fans? They always used to focus on his annoying side, but starting with Forces he has been toned down a lot, he got his moments to shine last issue and this time...

Spoiler

...he gets scared of Shadow, the hedgehog he used to fanboy around while fighting aliens on prison island.

It seems like they want to move him away from the little brat-image and make him more popular. A little late to do that now.

[Shadowlax]

I don't think rouge was that cunning. I think the entire plot was reliant on writing shadow like knuckles. If rouge would have talked to shadow about the situation before hand... a good written shadow... would have just avoided the situation entirely. Its a really contrived weird reason to make them fight. 

And the fight wasn't even good enough to justify that 

[Sgt Nate V]

Spoiler

 

W-w-w-what the fuck?

Why the fuck would Ian say "It's someone old and obscure" and then fake us all out of our asses?

Goddamnit, that's gotta be someone else in a costume. If it ain't then Ian's one hell of a liar.

 

 

[Shadowlax]

10 minutes ago, Sgt Nate V said:

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W-w-w-what the fuck?

Why the fuck would Ian say "It's someone old and obscure" and then fake us all out of our asses?

Goddamnit, that's gotta be someone else in a costume. If it ain't then Ian's one hell of a liar.

 

 

Think sonic heroes 

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Well Ian technically wasn’t lying, when he was talking about an old enemy, although I’m not gonna say this was shocking in a good way.

That said, I’ll wait for answers on this one. It’s a real good thing I kept my expectations low. 

 

Seriously tho, Ian, this is kinda unlike you.

But I’m kinda torn in that we do know Sonic and Eggman would duke it out in the next issue, so...

I don’t know how to really feel, but that is a let down. Haven’t felt this disappointed since the rushed acts of the Shattered World Crisis or the climax of House of Cards.

[Shadowlax]

18 minutes ago, Conquering Storm’s Servant said:

Well Ian technically wasn’t lying, when he was talking about an old enemy, although I’m not gonna say this was shocking in a good way.

That said, I’ll wait for answers on this one. It’s a real good thing I kept my expectations low. 

  Hide contents

Seriously tho, Ian, this is kinda unlike you.

But I’m kinda torn in that we do know Sonic and Eggman would duke it out in the next issue, so...

I don’t know how to really feel, but that is a let down. Haven’t felt this disappointed since the rushed acts of the Shattered World Crisis or the climax of House of Cards.

Maybe he's trying to rush past this arc?

Though this whole issue besides the page felt pointless...

[Fire-N-Space]

 

Spoiler

I knew the mysterious big bad was going to be Eggman the moment he started to say how much Amy has grown at the end of issue 2 most bad guy wouldn't have taken notice and would have just said that Amy was the same as she always was.

 

[Your Vest Friend]

Seems pretty obvious to me that the story isn't done with the mystery yet. Whether it's a fake Eggman or a fake Mr Tinker, there's something more there...unless issue 6 revealed Mr Tinker and I just don't have that info. 

Also I wouldn't say SEGA are trying to have Charmy stop being a brat in favour of cutesy. One because this Ian's writing not theirs, another because even Forces made jokes about how obnoxious he can be.

[Red]

I liked this issue a lot. I loved how Sonic poked holes in Shadow's logic.

As for the mystery villain...

 

Spoiler

Not going to write it off just yet. This is obviously a big fake out and Ian's definitely plotting something.

 

[Razule]

Well... really, how interesting/shocking could

Spoiler

a "reveal" of any sort

have been this early in the comic? All he has to work off is the games. Who would be shocking?

Spoiler

Mephiles?

This is underwhelming, but who else could it be, Metal Sonic? Even that wouldn't be that interesting imo. If it turns out this is a fake Eggman that's Metal Sonic.. then it just raises the question why bother disguising himself at all if Mr. Tinker's enough to throw off the scent. They don't think it's Eggman, they still don't think it's Eggman, it's Eggman, it's not Eggman after all. Riveting. 

 

 

[Shadowlax]

50 minutes ago, Red said:

I liked this issue a lot. I loved how Sonic poked holes in Shadow's logic.

As for the mystery villain...

 

  Hide contents

Not going to write it off just yet. This is obviously a big fake out and Ian's definitely plotting something.

 

He didn't though, nothing sonic said shadow couldn't retort. 

It seemed really forced..like this entire conflict . Like there are things sonic could have brought or even rouge that would have been much better examples, but everyone they used was bad and shadow could have retorted. The story telling in this issue seems... weirdly thoughtless for Ian and almost non existant. I like the idea of shadow being challenged, but he doesn't really get a real one. This isn't even to mention , I don't think shadow post sonic 06 would even go through all this

But I mean, the whole comics premise is , shadow... forgetting all of his character development and acting like knuckles. So what should I have expected 

 

 

[Razule]

Spoiler

Thanks Sonic.. never would have crossed my mind if you didn't look directly at the figurative camera and tell me what to think

 

[RedFox99]

This was an alright issue. The fight wasn't as intense as I thought it would, the reveal seems kind of weird, and Rouge and the Chaotix didn't do much (aside from Rouge's tip though that was told to us rather than shown, so it suffered from Forces-syndrome.)

[Kuzu]

1 hour ago, Shadowlax said:

He didn't though, nothing sonic said shadow couldn't retort. 

It seemed really forced..like this entire conflict . Like there are things sonic could have brought or even rouge that would have been much better examples, but everyone they used was bad and shadow could have retorted. The story telling in this issue seems... weirdly thoughtless for Ian and almost non existant. I like the idea of shadow being challenged, but he doesn't really get a real one. This isn't even to mention , I don't think shadow post sonic 06 would even go through all this

But I mean, the whole comics premise is , shadow... forgetting all of his character development and acting like knuckles. So what should I have expected 

 

 

To play Devil's advocate a bit, how was Shadow written like Knuckles?

Because there's no deception on that end, Shadow acted with the information he had at the time, and unlike Knuckles, it's not really obvious to the audience he's being tricked.

You can't even call it a misunderstanding because both characters aren't aware of the reveal at the end.

 

 

[RedFox99]

About Shadow forgetting his character development, to be fair, I don't think he was ever in a scenario where he faced someone in a similar situation as he was in.

About Mr. Tinker, I'm thinking

he might be Metal in disguise to distract the others.

[Red Hot Jack]

Guys, read issue 5 again. I knew something was up.

Spoiler

Mr Tinker is an illusion created by the ruby, they had him surrounded by red cubes in a panel.

I didn't expect the twist tbh, so I personally loved the issue, it's my favorite so far. The other characters were also well written, it was good, continuity, logic, reason were all components in the plot, I wish it was longer though, these comics always leave room for more pages. Another twist...

Spoiler

Rouge called the Chaotix to bring Sonic there before Shadow. She is definitely good.

Plus, I like how the conflict was resolved. I really don't see any issues here, I know you guys like to criticize and it's okay but I thought it was very good. In fact, I would say Ian succeeded and nobody suspected that final plot twist.

Spoiler

We were led to believe it wasn't Eggman and that Orbot and Cubot were working for someone else in issue 2. We should have figured out it was him all along.

Lmao. Now I feel stupid. Ian is probably laughing that nobody saw it coming.

[Your Vest Friend]

I dunno, I'd say misleading the twist is more needing to make sure people are led off the wrong direction than clever. But like I said, I don't think this is it for exploring the reveal. 

By the way, the trade collection of the first arc came out. The sketch variant is a blank white cover with nothing on it. 

 

[Dash Speed]

10 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

That issue was way more disappointing that I thought it would be.

Holyshit, the issue with my favorite character in it was the worst issue with the worst story. 

And I probably wont see him focused on in a story for a good long time after this

Oh joy

And like outside of Me like shadow. To remove all my personal bias, its a not a great story. And horrible fight sequence, if you can even call that. If I wasn't so used to not trusting covers of comics, I would call the cover fraudulent even. Why the hell did they waste an issue on this shit. I kinda would prefered shadow not show up

Shadow being a violent jerk and a fierce rival to Sonic has been a staple of his character since day one. It's more odd seeing them get along than fighting each other for the he'll of it. Shadow i expected to be more aggressively meaner to Sonic, in Archie Sonic is the meaner of the two but Ian's Sonic is high school bully level dick of course, so of course Sonic has to be more smug for Ian to self insert into. 

2 hours ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

To play Devil's advocate a bit, how was Shadow written like Knuckles?

Because there's no deception on that end, Shadow acted with the information he had at the time, and unlike Knuckles, it's not really obvious to the audience he's being tricked.

You can't even call it a misunderstanding because both characters aren't aware of the reveal at the end.

 

 

Its easily out of character when Shadow is easily swayed by Sonics words, Shadow works harder towards his convictions and belief than that. His greatest rival basically tamed him like a mom sedating her child with a video game, Shadow shouldn't be taken for granted in making bad judgements, he's one of the wisest and sensible people in the series post shth. Shadow needed to be written with more seriously and respected in his judgements instead of a impulsive edgy teen. Sonic can't be right about everything even if he's the main lead, his rival is the type that doesn't play around in making decisions and any mistakes he makes are of being aware of the faults he's made not because someone tells him too.

[Red Hot Jack]

Spoiler

They never told you (Ian, the characters) that it wasn't Eggman, they were just speculating. If anything, it's the fact that Mr. Tinker is presented that is very misleading towards the final reveal, and that is what makes a mystery... the turns and red herrings. I learned that writing and watching tons of tv. It's nothing new.

 

[Shadowlax]

4 hours ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

To play Devil's advocate a bit, how was Shadow written like Knuckles?

Because I don't think he does this at all. If rouge tells shadow  " yo eggman is still around but we keeping tabs on him " he will listen. This entire scenario is a contrived situation that is meaningless and a waste of everyones time. I don't think shadow does this, I think shadow acting like this and needing this entire scenario is a regression of his character. 

They needed an angry character who wouldn't listen to reason to fight sonic, that's knuckles. Shadow, even though he's stubborn, you can talk to and convince him to do shit fairly easily and would need to go through all this. They made him angry and loud for plot reasons, which really isn't his character at all. He's espically after sonic 06 usually a quite chill dude, but they threw all that character progression away for this plot. He had to be knuckles for the plot to function. 

And it makes shadows character look exceedingly bad for a reason i'm going explain in a second. 

 

 

[Razule]

I think even Knuckles would be willing to listen to reason before coming to blows over this,  but I guess all it really depends on is if they're supposed to fight or not

[Shadowlax]

So Shadow in this book. 

So to put this in the most plain way possible. This book fails shadow's character entirely.

Let me start with this, I don't want shadow to be the coolest, or strongest or smartest, or even the most liked, or anything. What I want shadow to be is competent, because he is, and what I want is for his character he's had to actually persist. Remember this

So lets get to the failing thing, because this book fails as a comic too, that's important. So every single comic up to this point, had the task of introducing one more characters showing accurate glimpses of their personality and shows them doing something that contributes to the cause. What they are bringing to the table and why they are around. Makes sense, these are introduction comics. They need to do that, there are new people experiencing these characters in these new books, you can just startle em with a detective crock and his bee and chameleon side kicks. 

So this comic was supposed to introduce shadow. What happens, from shadow's first appearance with the " grim anti hero " label ( which on a side note his and rouge's labels unless I missed something not saying GUN agents might indicate that sega is moving away from that , but another conversation ) to the end, makes shadow look like a very large and very stupid child. If I were a crazy fan I would suggest that Ian flynn hates shadow or something, because that's how weird this gets, but i'm not crazy.So to get to the story, to break the story down. 

Shadow is a giant petulant baby who can't listen to the friend he listens to all the time and needs mamma to contrive an entire scenario to get him to stop being angry and wasting everyone's time with throwing a temper tantrum. 

That's shadow's contribution, that's shadow value. That's what they choose to introduce this character as to the audience, a large edgy baby who wastes everyone's time. With a lesson he, due to sonic referencing shadow the hedgehog, already learned. 

It throws away all of shadows development, essentially to make shadow act like a giant ass baby and not listen to the friend he usually listens to and would listen to if she said " eggman is around, we keeping tabs on him " , and have her create a contrived ass scenario so they can fight. We will get to the fight in second. 

So this books story is built on shadow not acting like himself, and regressing as a character, its how the comic introduces him to the audience. He contributed nothing and learned nothing he already knew, there was no growth as a character. He literally wasted everyone's time and basically needed a fucking team of people to communicate some shit to him he already should have known. They turned him into an annoying incompetent child.

Remember when I said this 

" Let me start with this, I don't want shadow to be the coolest, or strongest or smartest, or even the most liked, or anything. What I want shadow to be is competent, because he is, and what I want is for his character he's had to actually persist. " 

I don't care if sonic beat the breaks off shadow or him and chaotix did it as a team. I don't care if the whole comic was shadow keeping an eye on tinker and him going " AHAH I knew you were evil " to only reveal he wasn't over and over like some sponge bob episode ( which would have been a better way to write this ) , making shadow look like the king of goofs. 

What I want is him to be competent, and consistent. And not only is he an incompetent idiot who wastes everyone's time , he is not consistent with the growth he's shown over the years. In the last comic, he was ready to explain or at least let help you understand how he felt, in this comic? He's a giant baby who can't even listen to his friend. This is supposed to be the same dude who didn't kill infinite and apparently just vanished and let people he think he was evil just to ( and i'm guessing here because they don't actually explain everything ) help else where. This is the guy who sacficed his life for the planet and murdered his entire existing alien family to save eggman after he had tried to trick him into thinking he was an android to gain control over him ( though to be fair that's after an murder attempt ). This is the guy who during everything that was going on in sonic 06 went to go talk to eggman , just talk. This is the guy who in the mobile game unlike everyone else treated eggman like a crazy grampa he had coming up with schemes he needed to stop and just wanted to talk.

This is the same character apparently

But you know what, sure. 

33 minutes ago, Razule said:

I think even Knuckles would be willing to listen to reason before coming to blows over this,  but I guess all it really depends on is if they're supposed to fight or not

If you wanted to make a contrived reason for them to fight? Sure. This isn't unique to sonic, it happens all the time. Probably someone at sega said " hey you need to have shadow be around "  Ian didn't have a plan to use this character at all in this story right now and came up with a reason for him to be around and the only one he could think requires him to stretch shadow's character really hard to justify it. Its a comic , it happens. So the fight in this book must be super worth it right?

NOPE

The fight is " Haha I pushed you shadow "

* a few minutes and bad arguments later*

" Haha I pushed you harder sonic making me the victor " 

" Shadow could you stop being a dick" 

" Huh, oh yeah sure " 

That's the fight

That's it, a bad chase scene that isn't much of a fight, sonic trips and shadow hits him. That's it. That fight was apparently worth fucking up shadow's whole introduction as a character. That one. That one right there. 

Remember this 

"This book fails shadow's character entirely" 

So not only does this fail to be any sort of an accurate picture of shadows character , and I'm not expecting this book to go through the entire saga of shadow but at least some semblance of like an accurate representation and it doesn't even do that.  

Not only does this book make shadow look like a large incompetent edgy baby that contributes nothing is dumb and wastes everyone's time

He can't even fight good. 

This is how they choose to introduce him to the audience . 

The fails to tell a good story, it fails to have an interesting fight, it fails shadow's character. The only page in this book, you need to worry about is the reveal .If you skip this entire book nothing of value was lost. 

That's IDW shadow.

Its a bad book and its a bad look

[Marco9966]

Tracey's drawings are good overall but some panels are off like this one where Sonic has half a head:

He should draw less in a rush and it would be better.