Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[SBR2]

I think Jack's pencils look pretty good. A little off in bits but nothing that ruins it for me. The characters look really expressive. 

Also Amy's talk about the war and the battle fought on this site honestly kinda makes me want to see a Miniseries or 2 about the war. Just because Forces mishandled the concept doesn't mean it should be abandoned.

[StaticMania]

43 minutes ago, Sonic Fan J said:

 

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I don't think it's the character model that's off so much as I think its the irises. They're a little too round and short making Amy look a little cross-eyed in a couple of panels. Other than that it's looking like this issue will be a bit slower on the build up than the last one so hopefully they'll be some good payoff.

 

Gonna be real, I don't think there's any way to make the hedgehogs look cross-eyed.

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, Fusion-Ellipsis said:

Right now.

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Jack Lawrence is the artist for this, his Sonic looks odd but expressive at times!

 

Oh, okay I was wondering about that.

Noticed we got location bubbles back again. Nice to have those back!

"Hey-you made sure it was worth it." Hn.

Is Amy throwing a giant lightswitch, though?

[Razule]

47 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

Gonna be real, I don't think there's any way to make the hedgehogs look cross-eyed.

Isn't that just the pupils being too close together?

[Shadowlax]

That eggman cave's face is making me giggle and I cannot stop. It looks like it is perpetually screaming and I love it.

As for war mentions, I understand this is going to color the context for a while, but I'm honestly not fond of it. Statements like you won the war for us, well sure. Because ya'll sat around and did nothing, sonic did nothing for several months people disheartening, using powers bad. It wasn't some hard fought war, it was a poorly told story with giant jumps in time with no depictions of anything. So mentions of it like this just makes the characters look bad, especially sonic given he just casually walked out of that jail.

That isn't to say bad games can't make good stories, but the failure of forces is in such a way that I as an audience member can't buy the thing that they saying because even in the game, no one does anything. What hard fought wars, I played the game you are talking about, nothing happened. And no amount of expository lore is convince me that something happened there. For that work you need a compelling product to attach that to, and if forces isn't anything, its compelling

I guess what's really is upsetting me is like. Non sega written amy is cool , and it would suck if her character in this comic like it has seem to be so far, is relegated to try and fill in blanks and justify the existence of a shitty video game , because she's way more interesting than that.

But maybe i'm wrong and It works out I dunno

 

 

[StaticMania]

3 minutes ago, Razule said:

Isn't that just the pupils being too close together?

Not really.

That's apart of it...kinda.

[DabigRG]

7 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

 

As for war mentions, I understand this is going to color the context for a while, but I'm honestly not fond of it. Statements like you won the war for us, well sure. Because ya'll sat around and did nothing, sonic did nothing for several months people disheartening, using powers bad. It wasn't some hard fought war, it was a poorly told story with giant jumps in time with no depictions of anything. So mentions of it like this just makes the characters look bad, especially sonic given he just casually walked out of that jail.

 

How?

[Razule]

Good part of this being an alternate continuity is being able to imagine a better version of the games' stories happened that fit this universe.

[Shadowlax]

20 minutes ago, Razule said:

Good part of this being an alternate continuity is being able to imagine a better version of the games' stories happened that fit this universe.

The issue with that is, its not really that alternate. The basis for these characters and there being here is still based in the games. And the issue with that is, forces story is so particularly bad, trying to go back and explain parts of it or even elaborate basically turns it into an entire different narrative. And even basing it in the same universe makes you realize how impossible the scenario is, given what happens in issues 9, 10, and 11.

And I don't think i'm alone on this, I think people on the creative end get this as well because forces isn't really refenced in a way that's too direct , and the only direct forces reference seems to have stopped by sega , along with the barring of its antagonist and protagonist. That said, Ian as he always does tries and works around this by using forces as a narrative spring board. Which isn't great, because the first things i mentioned. Anyone writing this series mildly competently sees forces doesn't happen, and trying to fix it or even base in the same universe as these same characters continues to prove that.

i guess my overall point is that I hope the forces stuff doesn't last for too long, it isn't that interesting of a narrative spring board due to how they are just not interacting with any of the people whatsoever and a lot of the events that are happening could just happen in isolation. And with stuff like amy , yeah we can like " Imagine a better version " but we wont because it wont be told. It will be ignored and the only version that will exists is the one in that game. And amy has shown to be a infinitely more interesting and capable character than whatever was in forces and unless they are gonna retell forces whole sale ( they aren't ) i would rather they drop the forces shit as quick as possible and just do their own stuff.

[Fire-N-Space]

2 hours ago, Fusion-Ellipsis said:

Right now.

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Jack Lawrence is the artist for this, his Sonic looks odd but expressive at times!

 

I always wanted to see a team up of Amy & Sonic but I didn't think the comics would make it so uninteresting to watch, Amy feels so generic here no jokes, flirting or silliness just loads of back story.

[Kellodrawsalot]

Amy looks so cute, Kudos to the artist.

[SBR2]

26 minutes ago, Fire-N-Space said:

I always wanted to see a team up of Amy & Sonic but I didn't think the comics would make it so uninteresting to watch, Amy feels so generic here no jokes, flirting or silliness just loads of back story.

There's 17 more pages after these ones y'know?

[Fire-N-Space]

1 hour ago, SBR2 said:

There's 17 more pages after these ones y'know?

The comics out already?

[Tracker_TD]

30 minutes ago, Fire-N-Space said:

The comics out already?

No, but given the last 14 or so issues have had about 20 pages I'd be surprised if they were suddenly reducing it to 3 pages per comic. 

[Fire-N-Space]

17 minutes ago, Tracker_TD said:

No, but given the last 14 or so issues have had about 20 pages I'd be surprised if they were suddenly reducing it to 3 pages per comic. 

I'll be surprised by that too.

[Polkadi~☆]

3 hours ago, Fire-N-Space said:

I always wanted to see a team up of Amy & Sonic but I didn't think the comics would make it so uninteresting to watch, Amy feels so generic here no jokes, flirting or silliness just loads of back story.

I have just two things I wish to say, one of which being that Amy is just focused on her objective at the moment. Getting distracted with flirting and jokes with Sonic ends up being counter-productive. Even in the games, when things have to be done, Amy reels herself in.

The other is, I agree with too much backstory. Unless used as a plot tool, which this story has no intention of doing so, a story told that is never seen bothers the heck out of me. Don't tell me there's a bigger world, show me!

 

The preview pages as they are feels like yet another boring ol' IDW Sonic issue.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

2 minutes ago, Polkadi~♪ said:

The preview pages as they are feels like yet another boring ol' IDW Sonic issue.

You'll change your mind the second a recurring enemy occurs, acts like Sonic is easy to kill, Sonic ends up not being easy to kill, and then they hightail it.

In all seriousness, I'd say we'll have the same formula right up until the tail end where Sonic gets infected by the metal virus and then hopefully we'll get something.

Although honestly, I'm beginning to wonder how far this arc could even go in terms of story telling. We already know if Sonic doesn't run fast, then he'll end up turning into a robot, but what can you do with that? Maybe an issue or two where Eggman tries to put up traps to force Sonic to stop running, or an issue where Tails and co have to find a cure for him, but otherwise, what else can really be done with Sonic more or less out of commission due to him being forced to run forever? Will we just get an issue where Sonic is cured and then they have to deal with curing nameless villages and that's it?

[SBR2]

4 minutes ago, Polkadi~♪ said:

The other is, I agree with too much backstory. Unless used as a plot tool, which this story has no intention of doing so, a story told that is never seen bothers the heck out of me. Don't tell me there's a bigger world, show me

But what's wrong with just saying a battle in the six month war happened? Isn't that adding flavor to the world? I mean sure it's not super important but does everything need to be a massively important extension to the universe? 

[StaticMania]

2 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

You'll change your mind the second a recurring enemy occurs...

But...But...But there are no more.

Unless surprise Egg Pawn appears, though personally hoping for an Egg-Robo.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

2 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

But...But...But there are no more.

Unless surprise Egg Pawn appears, though personally hoping for an Egg-Robo.

By recurring enemy, I refer to Rough and Tumble, Metal Sonic, Eggman, or Starlight, as those have been the recurring villains of this series thus far. 

[Polkadi~☆]

1 minute ago, SBR2 said:

But what's wrong with just saying a battle in the six month war happened? Isn't that adding flavor to the world? I mean sure it's not super important but does everything need to be a massively important extension to the universe? 

It ends up being a difficult topic to speak of. I can appreciate the story of a location suddenly being relevant as it relates to the battle at hand, and a location where no story is told, but the state of the area tells you something definitely happened. But a throwaway "There was a battle that happened here! Too bad you missed it" feels cheap, a weak attempt at world building.

Those are just my personal thoughts. It may not apply for you or for others.

[StaticMania]

1 minute ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

By recurring enemy, I refer to Rough and Tumble, Metal Sonic, Eggman, or Starlight, as those have been the recurring villains of this series thus far. 

I know what you meant, but they've already come back. Rough and Tumble already managed to...wait, Starline didn't get to fight Sonic a second time yet.

Oh, I get it.

Ok.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

10 minutes ago, Polkadi~♪ said:

It ends up being a difficult topic to speak of. I can appreciate the story of a location suddenly being relevant as it relates to the battle at hand, and a location where no story is told, but the state of the area tells you something definitely happened. But a throwaway "There was a battle that happened here! Too bad you missed it" feels cheap, a weak attempt at world building.

Those are just my personal thoughts. It may not apply for you or for others.

I think my problem with it is as you said - it's just cheap. Just saying something happened here is kind of a random piece of exposition as a info dump does nothing but just try to take pretty bland locations and add some story importance to them. It's just some random cave network with a computer in it, yet this is meant to be the place of an important battle scene just because really.

Like, what if instead of just some random cave, Sonic and Amy were breaking into the ruined remains of Eggman's lair after Forces? As in the lair that's at the end of Mortar Canyon that also housed the generator for Infinite? Or even if they were so hell-bent on using this cave system, could they not have at least tried to give it more flare so it stands out? There's a reason show, don't tell is a thing. For a cave that housed a huge battle supposedly, there's very little remains of that battle, bar the scrapped computer that randomly works.

Like, what if there was tons of Eggman memorabilia around the cave, to show it off as a former Egg Prison, and to show some of the Eggman ego that was lacking in Forces proper? What if there was broken and dusty Wispons to empathise the soldiers who were lost during the attack on the prison? What if there was a few random cells embedded in the caves with some scratched numbers or something to show off the prisoners and how long they were here? Or even a simple one - why not show off some broken Badnik scraps to show the aftermath of this supposed big battle?

Instead of Amy having to just randomly say "this random cave was the scene of a big battle", why not have her seemingly saddened when beginning the journey, but insisting she was alright, whilst Sonic saw all of the damage left over from the battle. Following that, Sonic says something along the lines of "I wonder what kinda party Eggy held in here", only for Amy to confirm to him that this was the scene of such a large battle.

Not only would it be adding a little something to Amy, being forced to put on a brave face coming back to the scene of a large battle where they lost many people, but it also gives this cave network a decent enough flare that would make it memorable enough to count as world-building, instead of just being a cave with a computer inside of it.

[Sega DogTagz]

5 minutes ago, Polkadi~♪ said:

But a throwaway "There was a battle that happened here! Too bad you missed it" feels cheap, a weak attempt at world building.

Those are just my personal thoughts. It may not apply for you or for others.

 

That kinda feels like you are painting the situation in an unfair light. Taken at face value, this also doubles as confirmation that the leftovers of Sonic's friends where at least somewhat capable during his extended absence. This nameless battle was the site of a Resistance victory after all. While it is made very clear the big picture was a lost cause without their blue champion, it is very refreshing to know that at the very least a collection of heroes was enough to stem the Eggman tide in at least 1 fight - instead of being automatically routed at every turn just because they are short 1 speedster. Thats kind of important to note isn't it?

[DabigRG]

Going off Ryan and Static's quips, is anyone missing Badniks or Super Badniks?