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IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread


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2 hours ago, Jack the Shadow said:

https://previewsworld.com/Article/229085-Flynn-Talks-Tangle--Whisper-and-the-Summer-of-Sonic

New juicy interview with Ian!

Details:

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- Vanilla, Cheese and Chocola tag along in issue #17! As Ian hinted at in the past.

- "Crisis City" is a 2 parter that sees how Sonic deals with the Metal Virus threat.

- Whisper will have her backstory revealed in the mini-series! Finally! It's interesting how these different people, Tangle and Whisper, team up.

- There is a big surprise and shake up for Sonic #25 a.k.a. the milestone issue! Which should be the season 3 opening… or… I don't know. 

 

2 hours ago, Jack the Shadow said:

https://previewsworld.com/Article/229085-Flynn-Talks-Tangle--Whisper-and-the-Summer-of-Sonic

New juicy interview with Ian!

Details:

  Reveal hidden contents

- Vanilla, Cheese and Chocola tag along in issue #17! As Ian hinted at in the past.

- "Crisis City" is a 2 parter that sees how Sonic deals with the Metal Virus threat.

- Whisper will have her backstory revealed in the mini-series! Finally! It's interesting how these different people, Tangle and Whisper, team up.

- There is a big surprise and shake up for Sonic #25 a.k.a. the milestone issue! Which should be the season 3 opening… or… I don't know. 

 

Crisis City is a reference to two games? 

Woah, didn't expect them to really start going into Whisper quite this soon. Ah well, at least they seem  to have thought this through. 

38 minutes ago, Ernest the Panda said:

I take it Ian is only personally thinking of 25 as a landmark, since IDW themselves don’t start acknowledging landmarks until 50.

A little too much Archie on the brain,mayhap? 

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1 hour ago, DabigRG said:

Crisis City is a reference to two games? 

Wasn't it in both 06 and Generations? Or am I thinking of a different level? 

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Finished reading the annual, it was a bit of a mixed bag honestly. I feel like the main problem is it doesn’t use the extra space like the TMNT Annuals/Microseries, where the stories are one and dones, but often feel tied directly into the ongoing plot. Case and point, the four microseries of TMNT that released last year each had an issue for each Turtle, and each one developed and covered one of the main plot lines of the book. 

I felt like the best stories were the ones that tied in, or gave some more development to the main story, or gave us a new dynamic we hadn’t seen before. The strongest in this regard IMO is the Tangle/Whisper story, and the Silver/Blaze story. Tangle and Whisper especially since it gives a new dynamic to the comic, gives us solid world building and neat ideas,

Spoiler

and the introduction of the Babylon Rouges proves to be just as strong as they were in Archie. 

As for Silver and Blaze’s story, it didn’t develop much but I loved the idea that Silver is in love with how lush the present is, and Blaze teaches him about gardening. It’s a nice twist on their friendship in 06. 

The rest, ehhhh I can give or take. I feel like they’re far too disconnected for their own good. They felt like the sort of silly goofy non stories you would get in the game adapts during Archie’s run, with no real connection or twist on the main story. It also makes it difficult to get where they slot in,

Spoiler

since Rough and Tangle was immediately working for Starline and Eggman during the battle on Angel Island, where Rouge also was, creating some serious continuity issues as there’s no real time for them to be unzombified and working with Rouge. It sucks because the Sonic and Rough stories could’ve easily tied into the metal virus arc currently ongoing, and give that some development, so it sucks we didn’t get that and just got some throwaway plots instead, the one with Sonic and Tails also felt a bit by the numbers IMO.

So yeah, pretty decent, and finally beginning to take a few steps in the direction I want for the comic, but it’s still a really heavy mixed bag.

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I think the fact that the Rouge story doesn't tie into the main virus plot is in its favor since the virus plot is boring as shit. The comic needs more little stories like this.

Actually I'd say the Rouge story is the best overall. It has a nice little story that gets to explore a different side of Rouge's personality (Christ, when was the last time we got a Rouge story in any Sonic comic that didn't have her tethered to Shadow?), and Rough and Tumble get more character in this short seven pager than they have in every appearance in the main book. It even fleshes out the world a little bit without making it the focus and being the setup for some drawn-out arc that won't happen for another three years if at all. Plus it has Diana Skelly on art. 

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I personally assumed the Rouge/Rough/Tumble story was simply set pre-Forces.

Is there something in the story I’ve missed that contradicts that idea?

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20 minutes ago, Heckboy said:

I think the fact that the Rouge story doesn't tie into the main virus plot is in its favor since the virus plot is boring as shit. The comic needs more little stories like this.

Actually I'd say the Rouge story is the best overall. It has a nice little story that gets to explore a different side of Rouge's personality (Christ, when was the last time we got a Rouge story in any Sonic comic that didn't have her tethered to Shadow?), and Rough and Tumble get more character in this short seven pager than they have in every appearance in the main book. It even fleshes out the world a little bit without making it the focus and being the setup for some drawn-out arc that won't happen for another three years if at all. Plus it has Diana Skelly on art. 

Agree, I loved this story and the freedoms it took.

The main book has Sonic+friend vs ennemy !! Issue 13 and 14 and 15 were the same!!!

Even Flynn can do a story that's not boring! The Babylon Rogues story was great! Hopefully Tangle & Whisper miniseries doest suffer from the same repetition as the main series.

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1 hour ago, Heckboy said:

I think the fact that the Rouge story doesn't tie into the main virus plot is in its favor since the virus plot is boring as shit. The comic needs more little stories like this.

Actually I'd say the Rouge story is the best overall. It has a nice little story that gets to explore a different side of Rouge's personality (Christ, when was the last time we got a Rouge story in any Sonic comic that didn't have her tethered to Shadow?), and Rough and Tumble get more character in this short seven pager than they have in every appearance in the main book. It even fleshes out the world a little bit without making it the focus and being the setup for some drawn-out arc that won't happen for another three years if at all. Plus it has Diana Skelly on art. 

While I don't think the rouge story was all that interesting. I do agree that the virus story is rather boring and doesn't seem to be going anywhere interesting, the only potential pay off is you might get a scene of shadow yelling at sonic about responsibility or something so some actual criticism of sonic as a person, but if that doesn't happen then its kinda bunch of nothing. I also agree that I like these stories in theory because they are not connected to the main story , but they aren't too interesting. I also agree that the idea of a solo rouge story is good, because rouge hasn't really ever been solo. When Ian flynn took over and sega was calling more shots she was tathered to shadow, before that penders had her as a love rival for knuckles because... penders can't think of anything else for girls to do as we have learned. So its nice a change of pace

I just think the story itself is kinda whatever

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I forgot to say earlier that it's interesting to see Cream being openly referred to as having her own supporting cast.

5 hours ago, SBR2 said:

Wasn't it in both 06 and Generations? Or am I thinking of a different level? 

Oh. That's odd way to reference it, though, considering Generations didn't have much plot within it's levels.

Although I suppose he could've also been referring to something WITHIN the story as well as it's title.

4 hours ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Finished reading the annual, it was a bit of a mixed bag honestly. I feel like the main problem is it doesn’t use the extra space like the TMNT Annuals/Microseries, where the stories are one and dones, but often feel tied directly into the ongoing plot. Case and point, the four microseries of TMNT that released last year each had an issue for each Turtle, and each one developed and covered one of the main plot lines of the book. 

I felt like the best stories were the ones that tied in, or gave some more development to the main story, or gave us a new dynamic we hadn’t seen before. The strongest in this regard IMO is the Tangle/Whisper story, and the Silver/Blaze story. Tangle and Whisper especially since it gives a new dynamic to the comic, gives us solid world building and neat ideas,

  Hide contents

and the introduction of the Babylon Rouges proves to be just as strong as they were in Archie. 

As for Silver and Blaze’s story, it didn’t develop much but I loved the idea that Silver is in love with how lush the present is, and Blaze teaches him about gardening. It’s a nice twist on their friendship in 06. 

The rest, ehhhh I can give or take. I feel like they’re far too disconnected for their own good. They felt like the sort of silly goofy non stories you would get in the game adapts during Archie’s run, with no real connection or twist on the main story. It also makes it difficult to get where they slot in,

  Hide contents

since Rough and Tangle was immediately working for Starline and Eggman during the battle on Angel Island, where Rouge also was, creating some serious continuity issues as there’s no real time for them to be unzombified and working with Rouge. It sucks because the Sonic and Rough stories could’ve easily tied into the metal virus arc currently ongoing, and give that some development, so it sucks we didn’t get that and just got some throwaway plots instead, the one with Sonic and Tails also felt a bit by the numbers IMO.

So yeah, pretty decent, and finally beginning to take a few steps in the direction I want for the comic, but it’s still a really heavy mixed bag.

It was pretty obvious that the annual was just gonna be doing it's own thing from it's announcement. It should be obvious that [most of?] these simply couldn't take place during the current storyline.

 

1 hour ago, Heckboy said:

Rough and Tumble get more character in this short seven pager than they have in every appearance in the main book. 

What about the issues where they attack Windmill Village and get transformed?

1 hour ago, Ernest the Panda said:

I personally assumed the Rouge/Rough/Tumble story was simply set pre-Forces.

Is there something in the story I’ve missed that contradicts that idea?

Oh yeah!

The only thing I can think of is the fact that they were interested in finding weapons.

1 hour ago, Marco9966 said:

 

Even Flynn can do a story that's not boring! T

...Well...!

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It''s too soon for the type of plot this "virus infection" is...

You can already feel there won't be much interesting done with it...

Every character isn't lovable enough yet.

Quote

What about the issues where they attack Windmill Village and get transformed?

Exaggerations are a positive thing, that's why people will use them 100% of the time.

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2 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

What about the issues where they attack Windmill Village and get transformed?

We never saw them actually interact each other!!

In the annual story, Rough tells Tumble to not be scared, and we see more their personalities, and there's more conversation between them than in the main stories where it's just "Kill Sonic !!!"

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3 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

We never saw them actually interact each other!!

In the annual story, Rough tells Tumble to not be scared, and we see more their personalities, and there's more conversation between them than in the main stories where it's just "Kill Sonic !!!"

The issue where they got transformed.

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Honestly enjoyed the annual because it wasn't the same recycled crap we've gotten for the main comic series. It allowed us to at least do new things, instead of Sonic meets up with friend, does a thing, leaves friend, rinse repeat.

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2 minutes ago, dbzfan7 said:

Honestly enjoyed the annual because it wasn't the same recycled crap we've gotten for the main comic series. It allowed us to at least do new things, instead of Sonic meets up with friend, does a thing, leaves friend, rinse repeat.

I'm gonna wait till issue 25, and if it's still the same formula we have problem. Flynn did GREAT on the annual, because it was different from Sonic+friend+ennemy that we saw everytime!

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I enjoyed the Annual, it's cute and has some fun stories. Hernandez's and Stanley's art were standouts for sure, as well as the stories they were attached to. The Curse of the Pyramid story was nice too, I liked the little SA2 nod, and Rouge has a new side to her. And that last story gave me serious vibes of the early Archie Sonic side stories. Jet Set Tornado had the iffiest art, though...

I'd love more stories like these!

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For as much as I've tried not to let the repetitive nature of year 2 get to me it also occurs to me that the last time we had a two-parter before the finale it involved Shadow and the Chaotix and it seems to be the case again. The parallels between the two years is getting a little eerie.

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43 minutes ago, Sonic Fan J said:

For as much as I've tried not to let the repetitive nature of year 2 get to me it also occurs to me that the last time we had a two-parter before the finale it involved Shadow and the Chaotix and it seems to be the case again. The parallels between the two years is getting a little eerie.

I can't wait to have a Sonic Universe series...

Or a "Sonic monthly" with different writers for short stories.

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2 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

I can't wait to have a Sonic Universe series...

Or a "Sonic monthly" with different writers for short stories.

It'll definitely be nice to get some fresh storytelling structure in that's for sure.

I mean I like Flynn for the most part, but I think he could really do to have a team of writers with diverse styles and approaches surrounding him to bounce ideas off of. It would be a major boon to both him and the comic in my opinion.

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24 minutes ago, Sonic Fan J said:

It'll definitely be nice to get some fresh storytelling structure in that's for sure.

I mean I like Flynn for the most part, but I think he could really do to have a team of writers with diverse styles and approaches surrounding him to bounce ideas off of. It would be a major boon to both him and the comic in my opinion.

What was the use of issue 14? Nothing!! We could just jump from 13 to 15 without problem.

Issue 14 is the most useless issue of the series! Because its the same as issue 13!!

There is a repetition problem. I did not read the Archie series except for the champions arc which I found amazing, did Archie post reboot have these problems too? (except Champions arc)

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1 hour ago, Marco9966 said:

What was the use of issue 14? Nothing!! We could just jump from 13 to 15 without problem.

Issue 14 is the most useless issue of the series! Because its the same as issue 13!!

There is a repetition problem. I did not read the Archie series except for the champions arc which I found amazing, did Archie post reboot have these problems too? (except Champions arc)

It features Dr. Starline confronting Sonic for the first time, sows potential conflict in his perception of Eggman, and featured Eggman testing out the virus, establishing certain details about how it functions. It's also one of the few issues to provide a comfortable flow between it and the following one with it's ending.

 

1 hour ago, Marco9966 said:

I did not read the Archie series except for the champions arc which I found amazing, did Archie post reboot have these problems too? (except Champions arc)

Oh, okay. Hm

From what I remember, there was a little bit in the second half of the Shattered World Crisis. Although in that case, there was obviously a lot more variation in the cast, locales, and greater pictures. Not to mention the sense that things were being rushed after a three month or so delay.

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Interesting Interview. That last part about a big shake up has me very intrigued. Just makes me want to read them all the more. 

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18 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

From what I remember, there was a little bit in the second half of the Shattered World Crisis. Although in that case, there was obviously a lot more variation in the cast, locales, and greater pictures. Not to mention the sense that things were being rushed after a three month or so delay.

Worlds Unite being awkwardly inserted in didn’t help much either.

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I found the annual to be a bit underwhelming tbh. The art was really nice in most, but the Sonic & Tails one was just.... there? I was looking forward to that one with the role reversal but it just didn’t hit the mark story-wise, and the artwork wasn’t as good IMHO as the others.

By contrast though, issue 16 previews look great and I’m looking forward to reading it on Wednesday. Of course we know Sonic absolutely isn’t cured that easily, so it’ll be interesting to see it played out.

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On 5/5/2019 at 11:29 AM, Marco9966 said:

What was the use of issue 14? Nothing!! We could just jump from 13 to 15 without problem.

Issue 14 is the most useless issue of the series! Because its the same as issue 13!!

There is a repetition problem. I did not read the Archie series except for the champions arc which I found amazing, did Archie post reboot have these problems too? (except Champions arc)

The majority of the post-reboot was dedicated to plopping down different Freedom Fighter groups and Egg Bosses on each continent, vaguely alluding to their backstories and hinting at future storylines involving them, and padding all that out with lifeless action sequences. To see just how repetitive and formulaic the stories got, just look at the first page of nearly every StH issue from like 264 on. They're nearly identical.

The problem with Ian's approach to the reboot was that he was *too* focused on worldbuilding for worldbuilding's sake, rather than just telling varied and fun stories that would build up the new lore naturally over time. Three-ish years were spent almost entirely on introducing dozens of characters with the promise that we'd come back to them later, which in comic book world means years down the line. This is a problem when, as we've seen these past few years with Sanic AND Mega Man, there's no guarantee that your comic will last that long. There's a reason people loved Champions: it feels like a complete story instead of a boring lore dump. For the most part, the backstory and setup took a back seat and let the characters drive the plot.

This is a bit of a tangent, but I feel that this hyper focus on establishing DEEP LORE also meant that less time was spent exploring the dynamics of the revamped Freedom Fighters. Y'know, the main cast? If you were a Freedom Fighter not named Sally you barely got any focus in the reboot because you had to make room for Timmy the Orangutan and his band of OCs. At best you got to stand around in the background and maybe crack a joke with Sonic now and then. 

In all fairness, Ian seems to have acknowledged the flaws of the Archie reboot and deliberately took a different approach with IDW... buuuuut IDW is also having some problems with the individual stories not being super engaging on their own.

Flynn's certainly not a bad writer, but he sometimes seems to stumble when he doesn't have a pre-existing lore to draw from. So to answer your question, yes Archie did have a problem with repetition, though not quite in the same way as IDW.

Edit: though i should say to be fair that some of this can be blamed on poor editorial decisions as well. With Archie and IDW.

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1 hour ago, Heckboy said:

The majority of the post-reboot was dedicated to plopping down different Freedom Fighter groups and Egg Bosses on each continent, vaguely alluding to their backstories and hinting at future storylines involving them, and padding all that out with lifeless action sequences. To see just how repetitive and formulaic the stories got, just look at the first page of nearly every StH issue from like 264 on. They're nearly identical.

The problem with Ian's approach to the reboot was that he was *too* focused on worldbuilding for worldbuilding's sake, rather than just telling varied and fun stories that would build up the new lore naturally over time. Three-ish years were spent almost entirely on introducing dozens of characters with the promise that we'd come back to them later, which in comic book world means years down the line. This is a problem when, as we've seen these past few years with Sanic AND Mega Man, there's no guarantee that your comic will last that long. There's a reason people loved Champions: it feels like a complete story instead of a boring lore dump. For the most part, the backstory and setup took a back seat and let the characters drive the plot.

This is a bit of a tangent, but I feel that this hyper focus on establishing DEEP LORE also meant that less time was spent exploring the dynamics of the revamped Freedom Fighters. Y'know, the main cast? If you were a Freedom Fighter not named Sally you barely got any focus in the reboot because you had to make room for Timmy the Orangutan and his band of OCs. At best you got to stand around in the background and maybe crack a joke with Sonic now and then. 

In all fairness, Ian seems to have acknowledged the flaws of the Archie reboot and deliberately took a different approach with IDW... buuuuut IDW is also having some problems with the individual stories not being super engaging on their own.

Flynn's certainly not a bad writer, but he sometimes seems to stumble when he doesn't have a pre-existing lore to draw from. So to answer your question, yes Archie did have a problem with repetition, though not quite in the same way as IDW.

I agree with everything you just said and why I found sonic universe more entertaining and even that book suffered from " we will get back to that" and then never getting back to that. I miss eclipse.

But Yeah I appreciate sonic universe having character driven stories along with building a lore, instead of lore for lore sake. That isn't interesting and can be relegating to a encyclopedia you can sell on the side for those who care

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Got round to reading the annual.  I'll be honest, IDW's past stories have sort of stopped me bothering to talk about them.  Thankfully the annual does a better job than most of IDW's regular stories.  The Tangle and Whisper one was pretty okay.  I liked Jewel and the Rogues were entertaining for once and not their usual, irritating prick selves.  That said, the Sonic and Tails was a bit thin and the art's a bit off. 

Seeing Victory Garden was good not only in its visual appeal (gotta say, Evan is excellent here), but also adding to Silver and Blaze's characters in meaningful ways.  Giving Silver a sudden love of plantlife and Blaze a knowledge of gardening showed how you can take a barebones premise and make it enlightening.  Also, it does my heart good to see Skelly back on the artwork saddle.  Her style fits Rough and Tumble's schtick like a glove.  However, I know it's been said, but I sure am glad Rogue actually gets a story where Shadow, or Omega aren't stapled to her hip and doesn't behave like a selfish cow the entire time.  I mean, god, how long has it been since we last saw that happen...

Gotta say though the Fan Club one was the least expected.  It takes a pretty different path, using almost solely character we likely won't see again (fortunately Jon Gray makes them pretty memorable with that crazy style of his).  I'd say the annual's done what the main comic's failed to do lately.  It brings a hell of a lot more different flavours, some better than others, that aren't exactly epic, or momentous, but at least they're pretty good fun.  Makes me craving a Universe style spin-off sooner rather then later.

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