Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[Pengi]

53 minutes ago, Heckboy said:

If we go by Sonic Jam, Classic Sonic is a year older than Modern.

It's the American/European version of Sonic Jam that says Sonic is 16. The Japanese version says he's "15〜16".

[Salamander]

41 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

A ewe is a female lamb. 

Of course, she had horns, which could suggest that she's actually some sort of fluffy goat.

...A ewe is a female sheep.  A lamb is a young sheep.  Sheep can have horns.

[Razule]

42 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

A ewe is a female lamb. 

Of course, she had horns, which could suggest that she's actually some sort of fluffy goat.

And Charmy has a stinger..

[DabigRG]

6 minutes ago, FFWF said:

...A ewe is a female sheep.  A lamb is a young sheep.  

Yeah, whatever. Same difference to some people.

Not that that means much, considering this is Sonic.

7 minutes ago, FFWF said:

  Sheep can have horns.

Oh really? 

 

7 minutes ago, Razule said:

And Charmy has a stinger..

Still obviously a bee, though. 

[Shadowlax]

On the age thing, the ages are relevant at the same time not. Much like archie , and I don't mean archie sonic I mean the old archie comics before everything got more teen oriented. Was basically a comic about teenagers for children. And while teen's and adults certainly do indulge in sonic, the characters being teens technically are for children. The idea is that they have some insight on older kid stuff. Its a common strategy that works, and its employed by MLP with their equestria girls series.

So in a branding sense, they matter. In a narrative sense , not really outside of a few specific situations.

Characters reading as children looking up to other characters

How sonic boom characterized its characters

and silver and shadow for a few reasons.

But outside of that it can safely be ignored for story telling.

I do wish it played more of a roll with sonic. I kinda wish sonic acted a bit more like an immature teenager than a snark machine. And it would be cool if characters treaten him like one, it would make him more relatable. Like he tries to go for a joke at a bad time, and everyone just looks at him and ignores him. I feel like sonic has always been a jokester and you play that up and make him a more relatable " teen " in that regard with some decent story telling. The recent games have done a bit of this, but not enough to where it felt like it was characterizing him in any interesting way.

That's my two cents

[DabigRG]

On 3/23/2019 at 11:58 AM, DabigRG said:

So, what do ya'll think of each of the original characters and how they've been used & developed thus far? What do you hope to see happen and/or progress with them in the future?

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On 3/23/2019 at 10:03 PM, DabigRG said:

Anyway, to address my own question a bit before bed:

While I don't really have an outright favorite, I'd say they probably rank some like this:

1. Skunk Bros *
2. Dr. Starline
3. Lanolin *
4. Whisper
5. Scruffy *
6. Tangle

I can go into more detail when I get the chance.

Note: I wrote a decent amount on Rough n Tumble, but it got wiped for no clear reason, so I'm doing bullet points.

• Collectively probably my favorite.
• Probably not the typical choice compared to the likes of Razor, Tangle, or Infinite
• Just brutish yet corny ruffians in a series sparse on villains, whether recurring or distinct
• A bit mixed
• Tumble was bit too similar to Rough initially
• First fight could've felt fuller
• Frequent appearances under Eggman was sorta missing point
• Recent issue and Bumblekast allusion was somewhat genuine surprise

.

 

 

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[Riggo]

I guess, in my opinion, without having an outright favorite:

• Starline
• Tangle
• Whisper
• Rough + Tumble

[Sonic Fan J]

Just a few random comments on the whole age thing for most people here, but in Japan before their industrial revolution 15 was actually the age of adulthood and is a frequent go to age for fictional stories as adulthood (my guess is both target demographic and to give a strong feeling of a different time and place). Underage romances are also not particularly uncommon with one in Card Captor Sakura between a grade schooler and her teacher being one that comes to mind. And for those worried about Vector being able to drink, in Japan 20 should still be the legal drinking age.

Anyway, with that out of the way I would like to say that honestly issue 15 felt strangely short to me and more than a little anticlimactic with Sonic's infection. To me there just wasn't really anything that made the cliffhanger of note and it felt like the issue should have kept on going but just stopped. If not for Rough and Tumble's antics I probably would have found the issue forgettable which is a shame since this was the issue that kickstarts the meat of this arc. Hopefully the next issue will better play with things and give me some entertainment value. That or I'll have to read through all of the volumes again when the arc concludes to see if it doesn't work better that way.

[Meta77]

I wonder if every 25 issues will idw do a special issue or event like how archie did every 25.

[Big Panda]

5 hours ago, Meta77 said:

I wonder if every 25 issues will idw do a special issue or event like how archie did every 25.

Looking at other IDW comics that have lasted long enough, it seems they don’t start acknowledging landmarks until issue 50.

[Red Hot Jack]

The only new character I find one note so far is Tangle… she has a great design but really needs to be fleshed out, she needs a story to be told, and I'm hoping she has that in her mini-series. Because issue 4 was just an introduction for her and she was barely tagging along in the other issues. So, who knows, I believe a lot can be done with comic exclusive characters, so just do it! I know it's early though, but I want to see a storyline for her.

Skunk Bros. are okay, I still think they are fodder material, my favorites are Whisper and Starline, but I repeat, Starline is kind of wasted as a lackey, he can hold himself as a villain alone, we'll see how the story progresses, and I'm curious about his backstory.

[StaticMania]

Tangle needs more focus you say?

Well, all agree.

[SBR2]

3 hours ago, Ernest the Panda said:

Looking at other IDW comics that have lasted long enough, it seems they don’t start acknowledging landmarks until issue 50.

Which TBF makes way more sense. Making it to a third year isn't really that big of a milestone.

[DabigRG]

10 hours ago, Sonic Fan J said:

. Underage romances are also not particularly uncommon with one in Card Captor Sakura between a grade schooler and her teacher being one that comes to mind.

Yee, really?

10 hours ago, Sonic Fan J said:

Anyway, with that out of the way I would like to say that honestly issue 15 felt strangely short to me and more than a little anticlimactic with Sonic's infection. To me there just wasn't really anything that made the cliffhanger of note and it felt like the issue should have kept on going but just stopped. 

Yeah, that's been a thing with a few issues.

3 hours ago, Jack the Shadow said:

The only new character I find one note so far is Tangle… she has a great design but really needs to be fleshed out, she needs a story to be told, and I'm hoping she has that in her mini-series. Because issue 4 was just an introduction for her and she was barely tagging along in the other issues. 

 

Essentially.

 

 

 

.

[Sonic Fan J]

2 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Yee, really?

Yep. Stranger yet, if what I heard was accurate, until recently girls could choose to get married as young as 15 though boys had to wait until at least 18 so using non-Japanese values to try and understand the characters ages would of course have made things confusing for most people. Though to really mess with your head, everyone complaining about how all of the characters feel too mature for their ages should consider that again in Japan, where Sonic was created by Japanese born nationals, that if your 5yo can't get themselves to school using public transport including buses and trains without an adult accompanying them then you can be considered a failure as a parent. In light of that seeing a bunch of kids and teenagers go on wild adventures and having ship teasing with characters with large age gaps just seems par for the course considering the culture and laws of Japan when Sonic was created.

[Big Panda]

That seems particularly bizarre considering Sonic was created more or less with a western market in mind.

[Sonic Fan J]

Created with an American market particularly to my knowledge, but still by a bunch of Japanese guys in their twenties, maybe thirties, primarily. Even working with SoA who SoJ wasn't particularly fond of how well do you really think they understood American and western culture back then, no less now? I can say even as an American I don't have a firm grasp of our culture due just to how much it can change based on what part of the country you are in and even sometimes what part of a city.

To think that foreigners who grew up in a different culture would be able to grasp American and western culture wholly enough to not fall back on what they were familiar with themselves is perhaps giving them too much credit, and considering how many shonen manga tropes Sonic started using come the Adventure era there is little doubt that the longer the series lasted the more they fell back n what was familiar. Even Amy's redesign and Cream in general appeal more to a Japanese audience then the target western demographic.

Of course, if they had succeeded so thoroughly anyway SoA and SoE wouldn't have continued to alter the character in their marketing after the concept was finalized and the name Robotnik would have never existed in the first place. Still, had people who grew up and started their careers in Japan had been able to fully grasp what appealed to the American and western markets at the time Sonic probably would have ended up more like SatAM on a whole and if successful enough probably would have evolved to resemble what Archie Sonic was in the 90s.

Me personally; I'm glad they fell back on what they just naturally were familiar with to fill out their ideas though as it gave a Sonic a unique flavor quite unlike anything else and to this day it still is my favorite entertainment property as a result. I can't help but appreciate how the strong cultural differences result in such a distinct property even if as of late I've found myself preferring Flynn's work to the Japanese writers' even though he misses out on some of the nuances that make the cultural differences pop in an enjoyable manner. Of course though that is only to be expected; Ian Flynn didn't grow up split between the west and Japan in a way that would give him that type of insight so he naturally writes in a way that plays to his strengths and familiarities which as of now is perfectly fine even as it grows a bit redundant of late. 

[Sonictrainer]

Textless Version of Issue 18 Created by Nerfuffle

Spoiler

Quote

Welp! Sonic the Hedgehog #18's cover been making the rounds!

Painting the blood wolf moon was a hair too topical for it to line up with solicits but I can't deny the allure of pink. I thought the warm hues would give the scene more intensity than dread.

 

 

[DabigRG]

2 minutes ago, Sonictrainer said:

Textless Version of Issue 18 Created by Nerfuffle

  Hide contents

 

 

Blood Wolf Moon?

[Celestia]

40 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Blood Wolf Moon?

That thing that happened a couple months back with the moon where two different phenomenons (a lunar eclipse and supermoon) happened at the same time. It looked exactly the way it does on that cover.

[DabigRG]

So to move on to the next ranked

On 3/23/2019 at 11:58 AM, DabigRG said:

So, what do ya'll think of each of the original characters and how they've been used & developed thus far? What do you hope to see happen and/or progress with them in the future?

 

On 3/23/2019 at 10:03 PM, DabigRG said:

2. Dr. Starline

Dr. Starline is definitely the most productive and maybe substantial of IDW's new characters, if not Whisper. The weird tailed platypus is the primary coordinator of the events that led to the current arc, having freed Rough n Tumble, sent them to retrieve Mr. Tinker, and used psychoshock therapy to eventually restore his memories as Dr. Eggman. Thus, he is now a promoted fanboy who acts as an assistant/enabler to his recent operations.

Also similar to Whisper, Starline is a character that has something of a clear position in the series and has a certain amount of mystery around him. In his case, he claims to have made his career following the many attempts of conquest the Doctor has made, even considering his animosity with Sonic to be extraordinary. There's also the matters of how he acquired the Warp Topaz, what are his personal intentions regarding his fascination, how might actually working with Eggman affect his work in the future, and where exactly does he hail from.

Thus far, he's been a character who's shown promise and actually had things happen, which is probably why many seem to gravitate around him. With that said, I think he's a little above okay as a character in himself. His final design, which is something of a sendup to Dr. Finitevus, is kinda middling. Like, it seems decent enough overall, but I kinda feel the moosed to the side hair, the weird tail, and the color scheme can be a little odd.

When it comes to expectations for him in the future, I think it's safe to say he is probably still due to some major developments(once again, much like Whisper). Those questions I brought up before and/or offshoots of them could likely provide material for stories down the road and there's still this just starting arc to no doubt provide more movements and interactions with him.

And my theory on the last question?

Spoiler

He may be a scientist from Silver's future who traveled back in time to observe Eggman's actions up close once the Phantom Ruby warped with the timeline. Kind of a contrast to fellow future [attempted] scientist Dr. Nega, he is obsessed with Eggman's action in the present out of appreciation for how hectic things used to be due to his actions.

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[CrownSlayers Shadow]

1 hour ago, Sonictrainer said:

Textless Version of Issue 18 Created by Nerfuffle

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Anyone else get a sense of deja-vu? Reminds me of Silver verses Enerjak’s Prelate Army.

[Adamis]

The second volume is coming in France on April 18th !

 

[Badnik Mechanic]

Did this get posted yet?

 

https://forbiddenplanet.com/266821-sonic-the-hedgehog-annual-2019-cover-b-hernandez/

[DabigRG]

7 minutes ago, Mayor D said:

Did this get posted yet?

 

https://forbiddenplanet.com/266821-sonic-the-hedgehog-annual-2019-cover-b-hernandez/

The full image has, but the tweet hasn't iirc.

A bottlefly huh? Hm.