Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[Dr. Detective]

I dig it.

I like everything I'm hearing right now. 

Covers look awesome. I'm glad another Mini- Series is happening. I'm glad Evan's getting a chance to flex the writing muscles on the official book this time. 

Time to engage in some nonsense.

[Sega DogTagz]

After Eggman's Dozen I am 1000% on board with devoting some issues to flushing out the fuzzy villain cast. Even better considering is another mini and we won't have to de-rail the main comic to do it. Mimic is a bit too... uh... "busted" for lack of a better word, so I am interested to see if they attempt to balance him in any way shape or form.

 

 

Evan will be fine stepping up to write. She's done good work in the past.

[Shadowlax]

I don't think mimic is really busted

[DabigRG]

3 hours ago, Sega DogTagz said:

After Eggman's Dozen I am 1000% on board with devoting some issues to flushing out the fuzzy villain cast. Even better considering is another mini and we won't have to de-rail the main comic to do it. Mimic is a bit too... uh... "busted" for lack of a better word, so I am interested to see if they attempt to balance him in any way shape or form.

 

 

Evan will be fine stepping up to write. She's done good work in the past.

 

2 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

I don't think mimic is really busted

I admittedly looked over him.

What in terms of morals or what?

[Shadowlax]

1 hour ago, DabigRG said:

 

I admittedly looked over him.

What in terms of morals or what?

The person above said he was busted I assume he was talking in powers. I don't think he is , he isn't like kirby where if kirby copies you he becomes you kirby. Its for the most part a visual thing and whether that works depends on how much dirt he has on you and do you care and can you see through the bullshit.

He could make for a lot of interesting " how does X character act in response " bits though. Its a useful as hell power, but like if you encounter someone who wildly doesn't give a fuck he's just kinda screwed.

[Red Hot Jack]

12 hours ago, E-122-Psi said:

Interesting turn, keeping in mind even Boom was unwilling to break Shadow's sinister mystique with too much comedy.

But when do we get "Eggman Might Not Need Glasses"?

Wow, this is so interesting... I wonder, does this means they are more confident in what they can do with Shadow this time? Rather than in Boom which played it safe, as well as SEGA's limitations with him during season 2.

Btw, we really need to find other hobbys to pass time during the covid hiatus, I'm loving what I hear from IDW but this makes me too impatient for more comics... so, I'm gonna re-read some Archie ones.

[Zippo]

I'd bet money that this spinoff was definitely gonna be one of the announcements at the SXSW panel. If this April thing is a video presentation, (and it likely is)  then it was smart to get this one out of the way now.

[Sega DogTagz]

6 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

I don't think mimic is really busted

He's busted in a narrative sense. His ability to shapeshift like that is a really tricky subject to write around. He's got too much infiltration capabilities with minimal effort. 

Now every time a character does something that is the slightest bit out of character, or gives a side eye or funny look, we get to ramp up the conspiracy engine and wonder if that is Mimic in deep cover 

Kinda like the Skrulls in marvel. It's too easy to lean into their ability to replace people to try and spice up a narrative, while at the same time provides the character what amounts to a get out of jail free card whenever they need it. 

There needs to be some kind of counter to it. Either more characters like Whisper who are hyper aware of his shenanigans and can't be fooled or more guys like Knuckles who can "see through" illusions like it's a passive ability (like how he used to be with the chameleons). 

[Shadowlax]

30 minutes ago, Sega DogTagz said:

He's busted in a narrative sense. His ability to shapeshift like that is a really tricky subject to write around. He's got too much infiltration capabilities with minimal effort. 

Now every time a character does something that is the slightest bit out of character, or gives a side eye or funny look, we get to ramp up the conspiracy engine and wonder if that is Mimic in deep cover 

Kinda like the Skrulls in marvel. It's too easy to lean into their ability to replace people to try and spice up a narrative, while at the same time provides the character what amounts to a get out of jail free card whenever they need it. 

There needs to be some kind of counter to it. Either more characters like Whisper who are hyper aware of his shenanigans and can't be fooled or more guys like Knuckles who can "see through" illusions like it's a passive ability (like how he used to be with the chameleons). 

 

I feel as though this a misunderstanding of why the skrulls are busted a species and narrative device. And an over estimation of mimic. Two key points

1) there are a bunch of skrull and only one mimic

2) skrulls can replicate personality and powers and mimic can only kind of do the first thing and cant do the 2nd thing.

These two in combination keep him from being busted

[thumbs13]

Yeah, shapeshifters that don't copy personality and don't copy powers are only good for maybe infiltration sometimes. Less of the skrulls and more of a Clayface I'd say. 

[Shadowlax]

Also become a lot less effective on a lot of the main cast understand a shape shifter in play. Narratively there's a very real eventual point whre they just loose their power against a lot of the main cast and kind of have to be regulated to shape shifting newer characters or narrative specific characters or background folks to get the job done.

[DabigRG]

The fact that he's just an asshole with a knife may also help.

[thumbs13]

4 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

Also become a lot less effective on a lot of the main cast understand a shape shifter in play. Narratively there's a very real eventual point whre they just loose their power against a lot of the main cast and kind of have to be regulated to shape shifting newer characters or narrative specific characters or background folks to get the job done.

Funnily enough, Boom actually realized that with Morpho/Steve Eggman. In his first appearance, his shapeshifting was threateming to the team and he was hard to take down, but when he pulled the same shtick in his second appearance, it failed because everyone caught on to him. Shapeshifting still has its uses in general, but Mimic isn't as threatening once you realize what he can do. 

[Sega DogTagz]

Mimic doesn't need to try and copy someone with a superpower or a well known complex personality to be effective. What's stopping him from swapping places with Lanolin and squealing all of the resistance plans to eggy?  Whats stopping him from rigging Chao races by turning into one?

It might be easy to see something is off about your best friend, but that ball is in another court if Mimic takes the form of some random Joe. 

Even if Whisper were to warn everyone that a shapeshifter was in play, you literally can't be suspicious of everyone. Especially considering that half the cast is known to be reckless and will jump headfirst into situations without thinking. 

[DabigRG]

I just remembered how Shadow, Rouge, and Cream were an unofficial team in the first two Riders.

1 hour ago, Sega DogTagz said:

Whats stopping him from rigging Chao races by turning into one?

 

A racket for the second previous decade.

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

On 4/14/2020 at 6:47 PM, Tracker_TD said:

https://comicbook.com/gaming/2020/04/14/sonic-the-hedgehog-idw-new-arc-writer-bad-guys-miniseries/

Ian Flynn is off the main comic for the time being, and producing a Miniseries called Sonic: Bad Guys that'll focus on Dr. Starline's whereabouts.

Evan Stanley, in addition to illustrating the comic, is now also writing it! Hot damn. 

Prrrrrrrromotion for Evan Stanley! Very cool.

[MetalSkulkBane]

I'm slightly dubious to be frank. I read Ghost of the Future and I could never really "get into it". Too much going "oooh, myyystery~" . not enough reasons for me to care. And this problem was perfectly transplanted into "Silver Age" arc of SU.

But maybe that's what IDW needs right now, a little complexity to fun but predictable world? Sure, I'll give Evan benefit of the doubt.

[Shadowlax]

52 minutes ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

I'm slightly dubious to be frank. I read Ghost of the Future and I could never really "get into it". Too much going "oooh, myyystery~" . not enough reasons for me to care. And this problem was perfectly transplanted into "Silver Age" arc of SU.

But maybe that's what IDW needs right now, a little complexity to fun but predictable world? Sure, I'll give Evan benefit of the doubt.

I'm kind of with you. But the thing I dislike most about ghost of the future is the focus on misery to the degree in which the story got boring. But I do not think she can do that and I don't think she wants to. Evan is kinda very are GOTF is very self indulgent and a pet project of hers. Along with her ideas might not fly with editors or sega. Particularly since their character notes nowadays are character focused. I'm willing to give her a chance

[StaticMania]

23 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

Evan is kinda very are...

What?

[Shadowlax]

I think I meant to type even even admits gotf is very self indulgent

 

[KoDaiko]

7 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

I'm slightly dubious to be frank. I read Ghost of the Future and I could never really "get into it". Too much going "oooh, myyystery~" . not enough reasons for me to care. And this problem was perfectly transplanted into "Silver Age" arc of SU.

But maybe that's what IDW needs right now, a little complexity to fun but predictable world? Sure, I'll give Evan benefit of the doubt.

I get you. I see a page or two of GotF every now and then but it couldn't catch my attention. For me it's because it's an AU with the settings/characters being so different from their game/comic counterparts. Same for Silver Age, too much new/unfamiliar content and the one character I do know (Silver) not being interesting enough.

So I can't be fully excited in a "oh we'll get better stories!" sense, but I do look forward to see how she can write something different with already established settings/characters.

[Dr. Detective]

I remember reading Ghosts of the Future waaaaay back when. I was surprised by how its not only still going but also by how, when I revisited it, it was the same comic I randomly stumbled upon that one time when I was in my... I wanna say early teens maybe? My memory is fuzzy. 

I've checked back with it a couple of times. There's been parts of it that are very fun and interesting, though, admittedly, it's mostly when it focuses on characters other than Silver. I like Silver but a part of me did sort of realize that in order to get the absolute most out of it, I would need to care about him the most. He's definitely gone up in my favorite characters rankings after they've fully embraced just how much of a nerd he is, so I bet it'd go over well should I give it another shot.

Also, I'm not entirely sure using Ghosts of the Future is a reliable enough way to tell what the writing for this story is going to be like. I know that if I were her, I'd probably try and approach the book in a different way than I did my fan comic. So we'll have to see.

I'm still super excited though. 

[Kuzu]

I doubt she's going to write akin to gotf but that is a good way of understanding her writing style and how it might be adapted to the official book.

[thumbs13]

I mean, shouldn't we be looking at her writing for the book as an example of her writing for the book? Like the Silver Age and the annual story where Silver and Blaze planted a garden? 

[DabigRG]

I remember the first page or two of it and a few select images after.

1 hour ago, Kuzu said:

I doubt she's going to write akin to gotf but that is a good way of understanding her writing style and how it might be adapted to the official book.

Post 160 Archie sure does match the writing style of Other M.