Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[Sonictrainer]

10 minutes ago, Razule said:

Shouldn't he be immune to disease?

I think mega muck that turns people and plants into Metal Slimes is a little more advanced than what he can normally withstand.

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, Kellodrawsalot said:

@DabigRG yes because so far each time I have seen people criticize or bash on the IDW series they always seem to be fans of the archie comic books or on social media I would read messages like 
'' They need to get Ken Penders back!'' '' the archie comic books had more passion!'' and my favorite the one that always comes back once a day '' Bring back the freedom fighters! ''  and the comic sucks cause Sally isnt in it''  
I have yet to meet someone who general doesn't like the ARCHIESonic comic books and doesnt like Sonic idw at the same time.
I am not saying they dont exist im sure that they do and I am also not saying those opinions are not valid, even trough I personally believe a great group of people are possibly blinded by old archie nostalgia (I mean I cant help but roll my eyes when people serious suggest the early 2000's issues had better art or Tracey Yardley drew Sonic characters better in 2006 then he does now, come on from a technical standpoint...) , and some of them just dont like the Sonic games and therefore  dont like the new tone and appearance of the IDW series being closer to that. (but hey what can you do, Sonic is a game first, and majority of people arround the world know Sonic from the games not from its Archie run, even if people like Penders are saying otherwise that simply isnt true.) but I just dont think this group is as big as people make it out to be, the idw comic is well received by the Sonic fans, i see more positive comments about it on the forums here then the archie-thread and its issues continue to be sold out
 https://www.previewsworld.com/Article/211506-Sonic-Continues-to-Sell-Out-Heres-How-To-Catch-A-Copy
http://www.tssznews.com/2018/05/01/idw-sonic-4-sold-out-through-first-printing/
https://www.sonicstadium.org/2019/05/idws-sonic-comics-sell-out-again/
even trough the anti-Idw Sonic group is trying to spread misinformation about the comic failing or that its numbers are false created by Flynn's evil propaganda machine. (I have seen people make comments like these and it just cracks me up, so much seriousness and hate over a comic book based on a blue hedgehog just not being the way you like it.) facts dont lie trough.

That kinda sounds like parody and/or strawman citations, but there's always examples as much as there are exceptions to a rule and I have very rarely seen evidence of that. And of course, I don't really look into this or that much at all, so it's vacant lot from my perspective. I'd say I don't care either way, but that's not really nice much less fair.

Still, and not the type of person who likes to talk like this, but you honestly aren't much better about that. This is the third or fourth time you specifically done this, that I can remember anyway. That's not to single you out as the only one, but you've been consistent about how you go about it. How about those who actually follow and/or prioritize games? Where's their referential representation? Because relevantly, that's the people who should be being considered here. And it's also who I was referring to after reading the past couple of pages.

I'll give you credit that you actually acknowledged that this time for a bit, but still.

[Big Panda]

Amazon’s revealed a new cover.

[Kellodrawsalot]

4 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

That kinda sounds like parody and/or strawman citations, but there's always examples as much as there are exceptions to a rule and I have very rarely seen evidence of that. And of course, I don't really look into this or that much at all, so it's vacant lot from my perspective. I'd say I don't care either way, but that's not really nice much less fair.

Still, and not the type of person who likes to talk like this, but you honestly aren't much better about that. This is the third or fourth time you specifically done this, that I can remember anyway. That's not to single you out as the only one, but you've been consistent about how you go about it. How about those who actually follow and/or prioritize games? Where's their referential representation? Because relevantly, that's the people who should be being considered here. And it's also who I was referring to after reading the past couple of pages.

I'll give you credit that you actually acknowledged that this time for a bit, but still.

Hey if people can repeat the argument that ''the comic is boring'' then I can bring my own two cents in it as well. My only advice to you is to look arround the webs and again I would argue that people who grew up with the archie  comic books and not-liking the games wont like the IDW comic books (because the tone, writing and everything is overall different) And you yourself often try to imply with your comments on the thread (for like a few times now, didnt count) that the comic has been mostly mixed received as if its 50/50 with the fanbase and that simply isnt true. You dont have to agree by hey we can agree to disagree. As for strawman comment, I based that off-the forums so if you want to see those sort of comments I have no problem dming you about it.

again if someone in general who doesnt like the IDW Sonic comics, nor the archie Sonic comics then please bring him  or her in. I kinda want to know what such a Sonic fan is looking in a Sonic comic book myself.

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

I like this cover-

 

[Kellodrawsalot]

12 minutes ago, Ellipsis-Ultima said:

I like this cover-

 

they mention that one of Sonic's strongest allies will get infected too. Soooo my bet is on Shadow, (which is weird, cant he also just outrun the virus to make it stable ?)

[Shadowlax]

1 minute ago, Kellodrawsalot said:

they mention that one of Sonic's strongest allies will get infected too. Soooo my bet is on Shadow, (which is weird, cant he also just outrun the virus to make it stable ?)

Maybe its a simular situation? Dunno, we will see. Interesting possiblities regardless

[DabigRG]

20 minutes ago, Kellodrawsalot said:

My only advice to you is to look arround the webs and again I would argue that people who grew up with the archie  comic books and not-liking the games wont like the IDW comic books (because the tone, writing and everything is overall different)

Hm...you know, it's kinda funny you say that considering the few sentiments we get here seem to be people who aren't please with the recent games.

20 minutes ago, Kellodrawsalot said:

 And you yourself often try to imply with your comments on the thread (for like a few times now, didnt count) that the comic has been mostly mixed received as if its 50/50 with the fanbase and that simply isnt true.

Eh, you have a point there. It's probably more like a 74 to 26 thing, if I could give it a fairer guess and that still seems a little off.

To put it words, I'd say the IDW comic is overall well-received or at least followed, but there are a few minor issues that different people bring up. And while them being minor issues implies that it's not too big a problem, the simplicity of the book's presentation and structure can make it seem like it has considerable flaws.

21 minutes ago, Kellodrawsalot said:

 As for strawman comment, I based that off-the forums so if you want to see those sort of comments I have no problem dming you about it.

That makes sense.

But I'm good. Though I have read a certain place once or twice, now that I think about it, but it's not really a place I visited consciously, nor should it probably be viewed as a place of discernible credit.

21 minutes ago, Kellodrawsalot said:

again if someone in general who doesnt like the IDW Sonic comics, nor the archie Sonic comics then please bring him  or her in. I kinda want to know what such a Sonic fan is looking in a Sonic comic book myself.

Well, funnily enough, that actually someone who presented their self very recently.

[Kellodrawsalot]

Would like to know what said person want from a Sonic comic!

 

And yes Recent Sonic games arent doing too well in tone but the tone and character writing isnt like the curent games. In fact a lot of readers want Flynn to write for the games because they like the comic over the games story. Should have clarrify that i meant that and the fans of Sonic games like the storybook, Adventure and Ds era. 

[DabigRG]

34 minutes ago, Kellodrawsalot said:

Would like to know what said person want from a Sonic comic!

 

@Heckboy

34 minutes ago, Kellodrawsalot said:

And yes Recent Sonic games arent doing too well in tone but the tone and character writing isnt like the curent games.

Eh, not exactly.

It's not as overt or frequent, sure, but the comic has it's share of snark and word play, particularly in the most recent issue even.

[Heckboy]

My ideal Sonic comic is basically a Sonic version of Usagi Yojimbo. By that I don't mean a Sonic comic that's set in 17th century Japan, but a comic that focuses on a wandering hero and a rotating supporting cast in mostly episodic adventures that sometimes tie in to larger underlying story arcs. 

We honestly do sort of have that now, but it's just super, super decompressed and repetitive. Not enough individual character-building stories and just these bland "season"-long arcs. The episodic and character-focused setup of the annual stories was refreshing, even if they weren't masterpieces.

[Shadowlax]

7 hours ago, Kellodrawsalot said:

@Jack the Shadow @Shadowlax

https://www.idwpublishing.com/sonic-shines-the-spotlight-on-his-many-friends-in-sonic-the-hedgehog-annual-2019/

“I am really happy to draw IDW’s original characters altogether with Sonic and his friends, as I had never imagined that I would draw these characters as official artwork,” said Uekawa. “As with many IDW Sonic series fans, I personally love Tangle and Whisper, and I am very much looking forward to seeing their further adventures with Sonic, as well as seeing original characters in future issues!”

You could argue that Uekawa is just doing his part of his Sonic Team job by promoting Sonic products but notice how they never did that with the Archie series despite its long run? the only times they acknowledged the Archie comic books was years ago when they gave out free-issues at an offical Sonic fan-meet event in Tokyo and those issues were post-reboot. And its not like Sonic Team hides their own distaste for western Sonic products, there pretty open about it such as they did with Sonic Boom
http://www.tssznews.com/2014/06/30/new-video-sonic-boom-jp-demo-gameplay/
https://mynintendonews.com/2014/03/17/sonic-team-werent-keen-on-the-original-sonic-boom-designs/
some of them including former members of Sonic Team, have already criticized or reacted poorly to the Sonic movie design on Twitter too.

Former members of Sega or Sonic Team don't mean much because they can effectively say whatever they want. They aren't with the company anymore, this is along with the extreme negative reaction to the sonic movie basically making this sort of take, not the hottest of takes. And your 2nd link is just the dev team talking about developing the game. The first one is the dev reacting to the game, not talking about it.

Now I do believe Sonic Team does like and approve of this comic more than the previous one, because they are more involved in it. While its true after the reboot things got uh much more strict. There were still issues, and things that were argued for and in some cases editor woes that they may have or rather probably didn't like. This book they are much closer to the development process and the book can be the way they want it to be, if something they don't like happens in it the change can be immediate. There isn't to say there isn't legitimate reasons for them not to like to older books, there is fucking plenty. But its a job, that's his job , its ok people like it and he's not gonna talk shit on it. And that's about all their is to that. Not saying he hates it or anything, i'm just not gonna read into it more than " he's doing press "

 

 

31 minutes ago, Heckboy said:

My ideal Sonic comic is basically a Sonic version of Usagi Yojimbo. By that I don't mean a Sonic comic that's set in 17th century Japan, but a comic that focuses on a wandering hero and a rotating supporting cast in mostly episodic adventures that sometimes tie in to larger underlying story arcs. 

We honestly do sort of have that now, but it's just super, super decompressed and repetitive. Not enough individual character-building stories and just these bland "season"-long arcs. The episodic and character-focused setup of the annual stories was refreshing, even if they weren't masterpieces.

My ideal sonic comic is a main book and a bunch of spin off books where folks get their own stories and junk. Aside from that I agree with your bottom statement, outside of the last issue the book has been largely repetitive. And some characters still don't feel like they have been properly introduced, rather have just been plot devices. One example being shadow who I still don't feel ever got to be... shadow. And if the description is what people think it is, it will be the same thing. Proving that Ian values him as a opposition  more than an actual character, which seems.... weird considering the reason people like shadow is the him actually having a character that's a bit more in depth than others.

But hey , maybe that doesn't happen,  maybe things change I don't know. But as the book is going currently even with the last issue I can't really say in good faith that book is gonna do anything interesting anytime soon

 

[Skull Leader]

7 hours ago, Ernest the Panda said:

Amazon’s revealed a new cover.

This reminds me for some reason of that South Park episode where the town in invaded by homeless.

[DabigRG]

2 hours ago, do a barrel roll said:

 

I don't want the IDW Sonic comics to wither away like Boom and the Archie Sonic comics, I want them to become popular. I want the man who is putting genuine passion and effort into the writing of these comics to write for the main Sonic games instead of Pontaff and Sonic Team. Pontac and Graff are nice people, but they have proven to be incapable of writing a good narrative for Sonic, even after almost a decade of trying, and Sonic Team with their mandates and whatnot aren't helping.

 

Actually, they only wrote the story for Lost World. 

[Kellodrawsalot]

@Shadowlax you do know I mentioned and members OF Sonic Team not just former right? ukewa and Izuka are still members of Sonic Team, (sorry if miss spell their names) did you even check the videos. And interview? They mention that showing Sonic Boom off to Sonic Team was painful for them (Sonic Team) Sonic Team also called Sonic Boom "" just a series to sell toys to sell to American children"" and ""you Will get a proper Sonic game later"" also members of Sonic Team are again dissing Sonic the movie. Its factual that Idw Sonic is one of the first Sonic conic books that a Sonic Team member likes.

 

@Heckboy that sounds intreseting but not the setting Sonic is from which is modern or fantasy ish like world, making a different setting again would just be meh in a way

[MetalSkulkBane]

13 hours ago, Kellodrawsalot said:

they mention that one of Sonic's strongest allies will get infected too. Soooo my bet is on Shadow, (which is weird, cant he also just outrun the virus to make it stable ?)

Hello, my name is MetalSkulkBane and I don't read preview. Please consider talking about them in spoiler boxes and making my life a little better.

Thank you for reading this message. (That's too everyone else on this forum, please comply to my extremely petty demands)

[Kellodrawsalot]

Oh okay,! I saw people discuss the preciews in both art and writing here before so I thought it was okay. But will keep it in mind,.dont wanna ruin the joy for fans of the comic who want to be more suprised : )

[SBR2]

Aybe it's because I don't take Sonic deathly seriously but I honestly still don't get the problem with Pontaff?

Like yeah they're jokey but why is that automatically a bad thing? 

[Marco9966]

1 minute ago, SBR2 said:

Aybe it's because I don't take Sonic deathly seriously but I honestly still don't get the problem with Pontaff?

Like yeah they're jokey but why is that automatically a bad thing? 

I prefer Flynn's writing.

Besides, their one story is very bad. The Deadly 6 are just 6 stereotypes.

[SBR2]

1 minute ago, Marco9966 said:

I prefer Flynn's writing.

Besides, their one story is very bad. The Deadly 6 are just 6 stereotypes.

Because Sonic is known for it's deep intricate characters. 

Like don't get me wrong I love the Sonic franchise but...I'd hesitate to say any of the characters are super deep. Even Rouge who I do feel is more grey area is still not a totally deep character.

I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I like the characters for their personalities more than how serious they are TBH.

[MetalSkulkBane]

4 hours ago, SBR2 said:

Aybe it's because I don't take Sonic deathly seriously but I honestly still don't get the problem with Pontaff?

Like yeah they're jokey but why is that automatically a bad thing? 

Colors for starts bores me as nothing happens. In firt minute we stablish that Eggman enslaved aliens and that's the story, followed by 30 minutes of nothing new. I don't know much I can blame this on Pontac, maybe he's just victim of circumstances. I just miss the days when Sonic had adventures, twists, mysteries, when STUFF happened.

What I can blame on him is that I just don't laugh. What worse, Sonic and Tails act so smug, like their jokes are a comedy gold. With Eggman and most of Deadly Six being incompetent dummies, Sonic doesn't beat his enemies, he bullies losers into submission.

I don't hate comedy in Sonic. Flynn/Sonic Mania/ TeamRacingOvedrive are great Sonic comedy-wise as their comedy is based on face expressions and personalities of characters. Pontac/Graff aren't using personalities, they possessing Sonic and Tails to tell jokes (ok, Eggman sometimes made me laugh. Like his Colors announcements). Sonic Battle, Riders 1 and yes Marine in Rush Adventures. It's almost universally agreed they aren't great comedies, but I still like them for what they are, way  more than Sonic game comedy in 2010-16

[Kellodrawsalot]

Flynn knows the balance of serious and silly, Pontac really has issues with serious themes and dialog.

 

Also Pontac"s Sonic talks Way to much

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, SBR2 said:

Aybe it's because I don't take Sonic deathly seriously but I honestly still don't get the problem with Pontaff?

Like yeah they're jokey but why is that automatically a bad thing? 

They've been involved with Sonic Team since Colors, which is what heralded a considerable change in how the franchise presented itself. And while that and Generations were certainly good games, the denser & wackier tone that started with them carried through in many of the games afterwards, including Sonic Boom.

Because of that, many of the flaws and/or differences in preference associated with the later Modern era somewhat lies at feet and thus people who dislike that & want it to change attribute it to them. Same thing technically goes for the Studiopolis cast and the overall mentality/trends of Sonic Team's recent design & other writing staff. 

1 hour ago, Marco9966 said:

I prefer Flynn's writing.

Besides, their one story is very bad. The Deadly 6 are just 6 stereotypes.

I should note that while they came up with the actual story, they given the characters(Knuckles and Amy had promotional renders for Lost World) & the overall location and were told to write a story and/or script around them. Which in Lost World's case meant they were the ones who came up with the conflict between Sonic and Tails, the teamup with Eggman(which makes me curious by extension...), and possibly the threat of the Extractor. 

However, they did not come up with the Deadly Six or the Lost Hex--or even Cubot, if what I read last night is any indication--and were basically just told to make sure they are funny AND threatening based off what character traits they were given. This in all likelihood also included making sure the door is left open for Sonic Team to use them again.

1 hour ago, SBR2 said:

Because Sonic is known for it's deep intricate characters. 

Like don't get me wrong I love the Sonic franchise but...I'd hesitate to say any of the characters are super deep. Even Rouge who I do feel is more grey area is still not a totally deep character.

I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I like the characters for their personalities more than how serious they are TBH.

Yeah, the ironic thing about the Deadly Six(well, half of them anyway) is that technically speaking, they aren't that far removed depth-wise from some of the other characters, particularly the likes of Espio and Charmy.

[StaticMania]

54 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

...particularly the likes of Espio and Charmy.

That's rude.

Charmy is only a lad, he doesn't need depth.

[MetalSkulkBane]

1 hour ago, DabigRG said:

Yeah, the ironic thing about the Deadly Six(well, half of them anyway) is that technically speaking, they aren't that far removed depth-wise from some of the other characters, particularly the likes of Espio and Charmy.

Sonic characters aren't really about depth (not all anyway). They are about how competently they are made.

Espio is a ninja: look at his ninja gloves. As ninja he needs to disappear, so he's chameleon. His name is Espio from 'espionage' or 'sneaking in, like a ninja'. All his powers are ninja/chameleon based.
Other than that he's a animal, like rest of Sonic world, he fits. He's ninja and detective. A cool stoic and yet part of biggest goofballs of Sonic. (Hey, that IS more personality that D6)

Now tell me same things about Zeena. She's a snooty girl...yes, I suppose she looks like one.
And that's all I can say with certainty. Her loose powers, unknown origins, shallow role in the world, strange 'zeti' design.
And final nail: Zeena isn't likeable. Chaotix are made as this funny disorganized team. Zeena was made  to look like loser for Sonic to make fun of, she's one-note and yet we spend considerable time on her in cutscenes and in-stage dialogue.

Compare it to Robot Masters from Megaman. They have less personality that D6, but people love them. They have specified role in world, expressive designs and don't overstay their welcome.