IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog

[Razule 2,601]

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 3,217]

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 2,779]

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 42,736]

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?

[Razule 2,601]

10 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

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

Yeah, stuff like Cream not being able to fight.

[DabigRG 2,779]

11 minutes ago, Razule said:

Yeah, stuff like Cream not being able to fight.

A portion of the issues where that was relevant had Cream participate anyway, tbf.

Like, you're not wrong, but at the same time, that's an example where mandates are limiting rather than outright forbidding.

 

I was actually thinking more about how they would postpone or tweak some of Mr. Flynn's plans preboot, as seen with the Neo Walkers, the Prowers(apparently), and Endangered Species.

[SBR2 2,358]

14 hours 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 "Sonic can't cry or have emotions" thing baffles me because he does have them. Like not just in Archie in Sonic X he cried when leaving Chris and was just as visibly upset about Shadow's death as he was in SA2. In Colors he get's righteously angry when he sees the Wisp processing plant.

Sonic is allowed to express emotions and I have no idea why people think he isn't. 

[DabigRG 2,779]

8 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

The "Sonic can't cry or have emotions" thing baffles me because he does have them. Like not just in Archie in Sonic X he cried when leaving Chris and was just as visibly upset about Shadow's death as he was in SA2. In Colors he get's righteously angry when he sees the Wisp processing plant.

Sonic is allowed to express emotions and I have no idea why people think he isn't. 

He also gets increasingly terse and then somewhat despondent once Tails gets captured by the Zeti in Lost World.

[StaticMania 1,919]

Sonic the Hedgehog :

Do people want Sonic to simply emote or do they just wanna see Sonic break down? When it comes to exaggerations like the one that started this discussion, it's honestly hard to tell.

[DabigRG 2,779]

11 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

Sonic the Hedgehog :

Do people want Sonic to simply emote or do they just wanna see Sonic break down? When it comes to exaggerations like the one that started this discussion, it's honestly hard to tell.

It's hard to tell what most actually want or would accept lately.

[Shadowlax 1,839]

2 hours ago, StaticMania said:

Sonic the Hedgehog :

Do people want Sonic to simply emote or do they just wanna see Sonic break down? When it comes to exaggerations like the one that started this discussion, it's honestly hard to tell.

If I can speak for myself. I just want to see sonic think, there's a lot of mandates, or a t least a couple that people kind of over exaggerate the effects of, however I think the worst thing to effect sonic as a character isn't actually a mandate at all rather an implied restriction due to mandates that exist and probably editing from his the writers various bosses.  And that's sonic inability to think, you might be like " Sonic Think's all the time , he thought up a plan in this last comic " that he did, but I dunno if he didn't think of that tails would have. Sonic doesn't really have a perspective on anything interesting, nor really gets his perspective challenged and that's sort of my issue. He never has to like... think about a thing.

Prime example of this is issue 5 and 6, sonic coming to the forgone conclusion of forgiving eggman was gonna happen because no premise introduced was outside of wheelhouse enough to challenge him, heck we had this story before in archie.When shadow shows up at the end of the comic where he should said in response to sonic " Alright then, Do it " in response to sonic talking about all the bad stuff shadow did and how he himself should be destroyed. Shadow doesn't say that. Because sonic having his perspective challenged in any meaningful way just can't happen for whatever reason. Even though that happening to characters is what makes them interesting. Sonic can take punches to the face, get shown up, or  have litteral pie in his face. But the simple thought of " So what exactly is my goal here , or what's my role here" is a thought so complicated that the comic or story will actually shit itself to actively avoid.

There's a lot of gloom and doom surrounding this book in enthusiast circles, lot of folks talking about what if it never gets good, and the stories to fast and poorly written andthe characters.

I think the thing that kills this book more than anything is sonic's lack of though. Because that shit is gonna get boring fast narratively. I think even for kids. In age where childrens cartoons cartoons have characters who are dorks and get their perspectives challenged all the time ( One of which is sonic boom a cartoon with sonic in it ) , this guy literally going through nothing of value is gonna get stale quick. They are gonna have to surround him with folks who can obfuscate the fact he cannot be questioned. Actually treat him like a character,  get new books so you can just ignore that one.

There are a lot of things lost in he Archie to IDW trasition.

Sonic's ability to be questioned might be one of the most dangerous losses

[kimplix 471]

God I love the first and last covers of these

[GentlemanX 637]

Those covers come from a post Mariotte just added to the facebook group. The post also says that issue 12 is coming out 1/9 and issue 13is coming out 1/30. He also says this:

"And don't forget to look out for new issues on the last Wednesday of the month in 2019 as we adjust the schedule a bit for even more Sonic comics coming at you next year! Like, seriously! More comics! You'll know more soon!"

[LongcrierCat 568]

That sounds like they may be going bi-monthly or have a sister series. 

I'm not sure how I feel about that, but hey, I missed Sonic Universe so having that back would be nice. 

[MetalSkulkBane 1,642]

3 covers and no Sonic. And people say mandates got tight.

The second cover makes me think of Master System games.

Maybe Starline will be old school baddie.

[Razule 2,601]

1 hour ago, Shadowlax said:

If I can speak for myself. I just want to see sonic think, there's a lot of mandates, or a t least a couple that people kind of over exaggerate the effects of, however I think the worst thing to effect sonic as a character isn't actually a mandate at all rather an implied restriction due to mandates that exist and probably editing from his the writers various bosses.  And that's sonic inability to think, you might be like " Sonic Think's all the time , he thought up a plan in this last comic " that he did, but I dunno if he didn't think of that tails would have. Sonic doesn't really have a perspective on anything interesting, nor really gets his perspective challenged and that's sort of my issue. He never has to like... think about a thing.

Prime example of this is issue 5 and 6, sonic coming to the forgone conclusion of forgiving eggman was gonna happen because no premise introduced was outside of wheelhouse enough to challenge him, heck we had this story before in archie.When shadow shows up at the end of the comic where he should said in response to sonic " Alright then, Do it " in response to sonic talking about all the bad stuff shadow did and how he himself should be destroyed. Shadow doesn't say that. Because sonic having his perspective challenged in any meaningful way just can't happen for whatever reason. Even though that happening to characters is what makes them interesting. Sonic can take punches to the face, get shown up, or  have litteral pie in his face. But the simple thought of " So what exactly is my goal here , or what's my role here" is a thought so complicated that the comic or story will actually shit itself to actively avoid.

It's still early in the comic though, maybe there will be more perspective-challenging stuff later.

[kimplix 471]

13 minutes ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

3 covers and no Sonic. And people say mandates got tight.

The second cover makes me think of Master System games.

Maybe Starline will be old school baddie.

The cover feels more of their previous issue releases with the same exact feel for each character portrait(s) featured on the covers like what they've did with Ducktales.

[SBR2 2,358]

18 minutes ago, GentlemanX said:

Those covers come from a post Mariotte just added to the facebook group. The post also says that issue 12 is coming out 1/9 and issue 13is coming out 1/30. He also says this:

"And don't forget to look out for new issues on the last Wednesday of the month in 2019 as we adjust the schedule a bit for even more Sonic comics coming at you next year! Like, seriously! More comics! You'll know more soon!"

Eee! That means Miniseries are coming! I mean I'd assume. 

Honestly I'd also be interested in seeing some OGN adaptations of the games. He days say more so who knows? 

[Razule 2,601]

41 minutes ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

3 covers and no Sonic. And people say mandates got tight.

 

Maybe there's a new mandate that Sonic can't appear on covers anymore, who knows

[Miragnarok 1,329]

45 minutes ago, LongcrierCat said:

That sounds like they may be going bi-monthly or have a sister series. 

I'm not sure how I feel about that, but hey, I missed Sonic Universe so having that back would be nice. 

Fleetway was bi-monthly, as well. Nice to see a comic that comes out at a faster rate. A companion book would be nice as well. Do you think we might get an entirely separate comic with a different vision (Classic, for example), annuals, mini-series, or even multiple companion books at once (which so far has never been done in Sonic)?

[Shadowlax 1,839]

3 minutes ago, Razule said:

It's still early in the comic though, maybe there will be more perspective-challenging stuff later.

This is what I hope.

I'm willing to give the book a chance. I hope the issues that occured in year one, stop occuring.

 

[SBR2 2,358]

25 minutes ago, Miragnarok said:

Fleetway was bi-monthly, as well. Nice to see a comic that comes out at a faster rate. A companion book would be nice as well. Do you think we might get an entirely separate comic with a different vision (Classic, for example), annuals, mini-series, or even multiple companion books at once (which so far has never been done in Sonic)?

Miniseries and Annuals I'm sure of. Multiple companion books seems unlikely but I can see them doing 5 week events every now and then. 

[DabigRG 2,779]

 

2 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

They are gonna have to surround him with folks who can obfuscate the fact he cannot be questioned. 

They're kind of already doing that.

And were arguably doing that for years.

1 hour ago, kimplix said:

God I love the first and last covers of these

 

What kind of cover is that middle one supposed to be?

 

1 hour ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

 

Maybe Starline will be old school baddie.

How so?

[GentlemanX 637]

10 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

What kind of cover is that middle one supposed to be?

Mariotte described as a "design" cover, essentially showing off the concept art Stanley made for Starline.

[DabigRG 2,779]

7 minutes ago, GentlemanX said:

Mariotte described as a "design" cover, essentially showing off the concept art Stanley made for Starline.

I can see that.

Oh, so Ms. Stanley designed him, eh? Neat.