Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[SBR2]

17 hours ago, DabigRG said:

Then why the heck are they releasing so much on it this week then?

To...advertise it? I mean in general you kinda want to promote your material so people will know about it and buy it. 

[DabigRG]

14 hours ago, Marco9966 said:

for preorders

 

3 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

To...advertise it? I mean in general you kinda want to promote your material so people will know about it and buy it. 

Okay, it's just that they released four different things about it within a weekend.

 

9 hours ago, Ernest the Panda said:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1684055830/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=sonic&qid=1562581537&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-3

Tangle & Whisper’s graphic novel collection will also include the annual.

Ah, well that's nice and convenient.

 

It's probably because of the Jewel's introduction.

[Echidna Adventurer CC14]

Fantastic to hear that the 2019 Annual is getting the trade treatment so soon. (Especially given how shaky IDW is sometimes with collecting Annuals, namely in the case of the TMNT Annuals.) Also makes perfect sense to include it with the mini-series, since Tangle and Whisper have their own little adventure in it.

[Riggo]

Do we know if IDW is planning to produce any omnibuses for Sonic, like they’ve been doing with TMNT?

Oh! And has the TSR one-shot been slated for a reprint in any of the collections?

[SBR2]

1 hour ago, Riggo said:

Do we know if IDW is planning to produce any omnibuses for Sonic, like they’ve been doing with TMNT?

Oh! And has the TSR one-shot been slated for a reprint in any of the collections?

I wouldn't be surprised. They've done Hardcovers for most of their books if I'm not mistaken. I know Transformers, G.I. Joe, TMNT and Ghostbusters have all gotten Hardcover releases anyway. 

[Big Panda]

https://www.amazon.com/Sonic-Hedgehog-Whisper-Ian-Flynn/dp/1684055830/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=sonic&qid=1562762415&rnid=2941120011&s=books&sr=1-3

T&W graphic novel’s cover gives us a glimpse of what a previously revealed cover looks like with the full logo.

[Eurisko]

Just got done with #18 and I am loving this arc! I think Dr Starline is a ticking time bomb of problems for Eggman , I'm just not sure when he will go off . This was also my first real look at G-merl as I've never really played any of the handheld titles. I think he clearly holds a key to the solution of the metal virus problem.

[Shadowlax]

I really hope when all this is over we get team dark interacting in some significant degree. I get the feeling the next issue will be more about shadow being angry at sonic than anything. I understand that the reason they aren't is because of sega and now they exercise more control of what is said for better for worse. ( and to be fair to sega and sonic team , Ian wasn't fond of having them interact before then either ) . But I hope we get something out of that. I feel as though other teams you get general explanations through how they operate or talk to and about eachother. You don't get much oppertunity to do this with team dark even with stories about them they are often focused on shadow mostly and they don't really go into what makes them tick really this is ontop of shadow just kinda being soft spoken.

I hope that at some point in the future we get story where there' isn't a zombie invasion and team dark gets to talk . And if not too each other, about each other.

That said its probably not gonna happen because sega ... but It would be nice.

 

Side Note for the immediate next comic. So in the last one rouge is calling in sonic for help, Rouge along with sonic is partially responsible for the goings on with the zombinos because she decided it was better to call people than to talk with shadow. That better come up and she better like... feel bad. Because it would be really narratively shitty if this one character kept causing bad things to happen because she couldn't be bothered to ask her teammate questions. Hopefully that gets brought up

[DabigRG]

3 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

Side Note for the immediate next comic. So in the last one rouge is calling in sonic for help, Rouge along with sonic is partially responsible for the goings on with the zombinos because she decided it was better to call people than to talk with shadow.  That better come up and she better like... feel bad. Because it would be really narratively shitty if this one character kept causing bad things to happen because she couldn't be bothered to ask her teammate questions. Hopefully that gets brought up

She what now?

 

[StaticMania]

She called Sonic for help and that's bad for some reason...

[Shadowlax]

54 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

She what now?

 

If you are refering to the past.

She is the whole reason this situation occurred in a grim way, she let the chaotix and sonic through other means know where eggman is, and presumably destracted shadow so he would arrive late. If she didn't , he would be dead and well... yeah. Or at least held up in a facility somewhere.

In this scenario, I'm going to assume because Ian flynn likes telling messed up stories that her calling him ( sonic )  there will trigger a series of events that may get shadow turned into zombino, and that might cause him to hurt people. Because despite his demeanor its a thing he doesn't want to do and would make him upset to know he did that.

So it would be nice if you know, they addressed that character flaw. " Like hey maybe me acting like a mother to a grown ass ma....hedgehog and a robot who is presumably also an adult isn't the best way to handle things and if I have an issue I should talk to my friends with my mouth words instead of not because its literally making things worse " .

4 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

She called Sonic for help and that's bad for some reason...

I explained

[StaticMania]

I saw your expo...

I'mma still say "for some reason" since it just kinda skips the "why".

[Shadowlax]

13 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

I saw your expo...

I'mma still say "for some reason" since it just kinda skips the "why".

Its not some reason? It doesn't skip the why, I predict that the story is gonna go in direction and that direction being something sonic does (along with him in combination with rouge kinda of being the reason this is occurring) causes shadow to become a zomburrito. Which I dunno doesn't seem unreasonable giving the proceedings am I wrong?

And I'm hoping this is also a learning moment for rouge , either during this story or when its all said and done about maybe talking more and having a bit more faith in her team mates. Both situations may have been able to be avoided if she would have just... talked. And it would be an opportunity to give rouge a character flaw outside of " thief " and sometimes selfish. She would be someone who thinks they know what information to withhold and when to act to restrict others autonomy only for it to back fire.

Heck if you wanna get weird you could problably connect this back to forces when some dialog seems to imply she just knew shadow was about. Them knowing shadow was around , and ... knowing shadow was around could have helped them a whole lot. I mean that story is barely a story but Ian has pulled worse out of the sonic canon only to make it vastly more interesting.

So that's the why. Just me making a prediction, and If they do go that way, using this as a opportunity to actually do a cool thing with rouges character , have her be a character with tangible flaws.

[StaticMania]

Why would Rouge not call Shadow?

Is that the why?

[Shadowlax]

2 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

Why would Rouge not call Shadow?

Is that the why?

If you mean in the next book, maybe she just thinks its the best course of action because she thinks she knows better. " Shadow needs help but he's too stubborn so i'm gonna call it in "

and then bad things happen. And then she's like " Oh.... I might be causing things to occur. Oh no "

[StaticMania]

By proxy...which isn't a direct cause of guilt.

She's good.

[Shadowlax]

5 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

By proxy...which isn't a direct cause of guilt.

She's good.

Not at all?

If I'm making decisions that are making your life and the lives of those around you worse, and these things could have been avoided by talking to you. That is not , by proxy. That's direct fault. Whether she feels like she's stands by these choices is another thing entirely.  And having to think about were these choices worth it, maybe having shadow be... very upset because he out of all the characters who would be on the " Take responsibility for your actions train " . Might cause some growth with in rouge as a character.

If you believe that she shouldn't feel guilt over this , it feels sociopath for her. Sonic the guy who literally told shadow not to do the thing, feels guilt over this... why shouldn't she? She's the who set the events in motion

I feel like there are calls for rouge to be more of a character in these books, and here's ample opportunity where she gets to be a flawed character who learns something. When sonic the guy who often doesn't learn anything is experiencing some doubt , and you are like " Nah it isn't her fault? "

[Diogenes]

We're going to be rehashing this issue for IDW Sonic's entire run aren't we.

29 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

So it would be nice if you know, they addressed that character flaw. " Like hey maybe me acting like a mother to a grown ass ma....hedgehog and a robot who is presumably also an adult isn't the best way to handle things and if I have an issue I should talk to my friends with my mouth words instead of not because its literally making things worse " 

Shadow wasn't interested in listening to anyone talk, Sonic had to distract him with a fight for him to cool down enough to even consider verifying the situation first.

8 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

If you believe that she shouldn't feel guilt over this , it feels sociopath. Sonic the guy who literally told shadow not to do the thing, feels guilt over this... why shouldn't she? She's the who set the events in motion.

Rouge isn't a sociopath but she is a more amoral character than most in the series. She dealt with the situation to the best of her ability and got the immediate outcome that she was aiming for; she'd call that a win. Whatever came next was a separate matter.

23 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

If you mean in the next book, maybe she just thinks its the best course of action because she thinks she knows better. " Shadow needs help but he's too stubborn so i'm gonna call it in "

and then bad things happen. And then she's like " Oh.... I might be causing things to occur. Oh no "

You can hardly fucking fault her for calling in help. If that ends up part of some chain of events that leads to Shadow getting infected you may as well blame the butterflies for flapping their wings as well.

[Shadowlax]

21 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

We're going to be rehashing this issue for IDW Sonic's entire run aren't we.

Shadow wasn't interested in listening to anyone talk, Sonic had to distract him with a fight for him to cool down enough to even consider verifying the situation first.

Eh I feel as though rouge could have had a conversation with him. Writing shadow as a wholy unreasonable...considering the whole of his character arc is to uh... kinda not be that seems backward. And kinda why I was against that as a plot point in the first place, Unlike with eclipse being kind of a threat and making him paranoid, this was an old dude who lost his memory and maybe shadow would have been more reasonable. However that's what I would have wanted, but its not what happened, what happened is what you said. Cool.

Whether shadow wanted to strait up kill him or isolate him somewhere, shadow wasn't one for talk. Sure. That's what happened.

That current man is causing a zombie apocalypse, this situation not only for sonic but for rouge may cause some introspection. Not saying either of them are wrong, but to at least think about it seems...reasonable. And maybe you could get a neat character flaw out of it.  I dunno.

Quote

Rouge isn't a sociopath but she is a more amoral character than most in the series. She dealt with the situation to the best of her ability and got the immediate outcome that she was aiming for; she'd call that a win. Whatever came next was a separate matter.

Eh? I don't think so. Considering who whole deal is " when the world goes to shit , maybe its time to be more of a good guy " she might actually feel bad about this. Also shadow might be pissed at her , which might yield interesting results whether she feels bad or not.

Also we keep saying rouge is amoral... when is the last time that has actually been apart of character  or actually conveyed in any way in any media both comic and game, while I do not like it myself we are long past the point of amoral rouge. And rouge as a character effectively exists to tell people to calm down. Which ... sucks. But this a comic closer to the games and at least we could do something interesting with it. And so far, she's been a character to tell shadow to calm down. Which ... sucks. At least we can do something interesting with the narrative box the characters seem to be trapped in.

Quote

You can hardly fucking fault her for calling in help. If that ends up part of some chain of events that leads to Shadow getting infected you may as well blame the butterflies for flapping their wings as well.

Depending on the series of events it would be on her, and there would be learning and growing to be done. As for what happens, we have yet to see.

If I may make a broad prediction.

1) I think Sonic and maybe rouge will go through some introspection

2) There might be a team break up.

 

 

[Shadowlax]

If I may explain my reasoning. I have given up.

The characters are the way they are, and some of the changes i'm not too fond of. But I don't think those changes are gonna change anytime soon, the people who are incharge are and monitor Ian and IDW. So what i'm trying to do here is try and at least talk about what might be the best possible version of the stories being told with the characters we have, as they have them.

I would love for there to be some great big brand shift, but while I do think change is coming not to the elements some of us might enjoy. I feel like the characters for better or for worse outside of voice actors, are gonna be the same. They work for branding and toys and stuff. So instead of arguing in circles. I feel like the productive thing at least for me, is to look at what we got and talk about what might be the best or more interesting narrative outcome given what we have to work with.

So maybe instead of being a sneaky theif , you play up the spy government agent angle more and you have her have her nose in everyone's business. She's the character with the info, she's the character making the big brain plays. And sometimes those plays works out, sometimes they don't in very bad ways. And this time it causes her to do some reflection. Because of currently in the game rouge is " Character who tells rowdy characters to calm down " and I think she's more interesting than that. Lets turn what they want her to be into something that's narratively interesting.

And i'm taking this mindset to all the characters. Some harder than other's I couldn't for the life of you tell you what their intent with tails's is . But i'm trying to go with the proverbial flow and work with what we got.

[thumbs13]

I feel like rouge accepting guilt and it actually being rouge's fault are two seperate things. But yeah, Shadow's portrayal so far has been a bit wonky. Hopefully he doesn't get infected that fast.

[Shadowlax]

1 hour ago, thumbs13 said:

I feel like rouge accepting guilt and it actually being rouge's fault are two seperate things. But yeah, Shadow's portrayal so far has been a bit wonky. Hopefully he doesn't get infected that fast.

I agree, and I want to be clear. What I think about rouge feeling some guilt is because I think its partially her fault, while its my opinion, its largely irrelevant to what i'm talking about. Characters don't think 100% logically if they did stories wouldn't be interesting and life doesn't really work that way. If you want to get technical the only one technically " at fault " is eggman for being evil, however someone reasonably feeling guilt because thinking their inaction may have doomed their friends along with the world would make sense. And would narratively allow her to be more interesting than " I think i'm right all the time, I tell other characters to calm down " which she seems to have been relegated to . And I , personally, think she's more interesting than that.

[DabigRG]

You do have to wonder where this comic will go after a Zombot apocalypse.

[dbzfan7]

1 hour ago, DabigRG said:

You do have to wonder where this comic will go after a Zombot apocalypse.

Battle Royale. The one thing more common than Zombies now.

[knuckles20]

5 hours ago, DabigRG said:

You do have to wonder where this comic will go after a Zombot apocalypse.

My guess: 1 or 2 issues of characters dealing the aftermath; particularly with introspection on those who fell to the plaque, Dr Starline breaking off on his own after learning Eggman isn’t what he built him up to be, possibly becoming the main antagonist in Year 3 and/or cooperating with another IDW original villain.