Sonic the Hedgehog IDW #57 - Minithread

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

Looks like sonic amd lanolin won't see eye to eye. 

 

 

Pun totally intended.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

1 hour ago, Red Hot Jack said:

 

I'd rather have actual rebooted Sally than this, but yeah, I don't think it's the case? People keep comparing female command types to her as if she is the only one who can give orders.

No, we’re comparing female command types because their attitudes come off very similar at times.

That’s not really saying Sally is the only one who can give orders—Rouge is another female who has been in command roles bossing Shadow and Omega around, but she was distinct from Sally even when they were in the same comic. (And let’s be real, either she or Vector would’ve been a better choice to lead the resistance over Knuckles, and Vector could be in charge of the restoration instead of Amy)

We can have more than one, but if you’re gonna make them similar to a previous character…you were better off just using that previous character you already had with that attitude in such a role. New characters should be more distinct even in the same role much like how Sonic, Shadow, and Metal Sonic are speedy hedgehogs that can go Super, but with different personalities, auxiliary abilities, roles, and backgrounds.

Mind you, I’m just looking just at Lanolin personality and role—she doesn’t have Sally’s laser swords or royal background, but just on her personality and position is where I see a lot of “Sally” in her.

[Kuzu]

My thing is that I just think its a waste to have yet another "commander" type character.

Its like Flynn desperately wants to use Sally but he has to settle for creating a bunch of "Not" versions of her.

 

I feel like much better time would be spent making them distinct to help them stand out. If Surge can stand out in a sea of Sonic clones, no reason why others can't.

[Slashy]

Issue really suffers from tell not show. The concept of the city being alive is actually cool, but it does not seem like the comic finds that interesting so the process of discovering that information through minor plot beats or even just showing the city expand or repair itself is thrown out in favour of Sonic being unusually insightful and putting it together the moment he finds a single hint.

I am not into this story due to the concept of it, but I am even more annoyed because I think there actually is an interesting idea to focus the story around and it feels like it is being used for an excuse plot to get everyone together.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

You’d think a high tech city doing cool things would be awesome. Especially with Eggman—we were still in awe of Eggmanland being built int Unleashed despite it kicking our asses and frustrating the absolute shit out of us.

[MetalSkulkBane]

#57, this issue is… concerning.

For starters, yes, this is an odd elevator pitch.
Sonic Vs his twisted and tortured imposter? Cool
Horror-ish island filled with classic badniks? Awesome
Girls-centered story with camping and going through personal issues? Sounds interesting

“Sonic & friends go to a city filled with badniks”... and? Where’s the hook? That’s what they do every week. It’s like saying “Legend of Zelda: this time with purple hat”

The Egg-pire City doesn’t look that unique, other than its mysterious growth. Sounds like nanomachines to me, but that would be a repeat of Archie’s nanite city. Plus self growing machinery is a little Metal Virus-eque and is Eggman dumb enough to try again?... he might be.

Tangle & Whisper are back together and this irks me. They established Whisper went solo, that Tangle leaves Restoration to find her and… what, did it happen off screen? I guess Sonic brought her back after the whole Surge thing and the quest got canceled? Whisper no longer hunts Mimic? It reminds me negatively of MCU, when they set up something (Thor with Guardians of Galaxy) and then change their mind and shrug it off. It’s lame. I know, the “Whisper goes solo to keep her friends safe” seems to be the topic of the story, but it’s thematic continuity, not events.

But let’s talk about the main course: Lanolin.
Doing “ascended extra” is a risky move. If fans love a character in the background (for some reason) and nothing is established about them, fans will fill the void with speculation. Lanolin always looked nervous and anxious, I assumed she’s a normal person who’s not good with Sonic level of “crazy”, sorta audience surrogate to remind us not every mobian is a superhero waiting to bloom. But here we are, she’s a high ranking officer with her own wisp, fighting as well as Tangle or Whisper. (And before anyone mentions MLP Derpy, fandom seemed in agreement who Derpy was and Hasbro just copy-pasted. This is closer to return of Luna and reveal of her new personality).
Fine, whatever. That’s only a problem if I insist this is a problem. Forget "my Lanolin", let's meet "real Lanolin"
.... she's there. Nothing special. Calling her "Sally 2.0" is a bit jumping the gun, but on first impressions there is nothing that makes her stand out. Wispon in bell is pretty cute, but that makes her inferior Whisper (mixed with inferior Sally).

Also: is Lanonin really the Mimic? No. I wonder if giving him those "sucker" on his hands was a terrible idea, because now audience can always easily spot him.

[Michael Takagawa]

19 hours ago, Kuzu said:

My thing is that I just think its a waste to have yet another "commander" type character.

Its like Flynn desperately wants to use Sally but he has to settle for creating a bunch of "Not" versions of her.

I feel like much better time would be spent making them distinct to help them stand out. If Surge can stand out in a sea of Sonic clones, no reason why others can't.

Then look no further to having a swarm of Not-Antoines, Not-Rotors, Not-Bunny Rabbots, Not-Nicoles, Not-Uncle Chucks, and Not-Snivelies. If Ian Flynn can do it with Sally, then why not them?

[Kuzu]

I would rather there was more focus on making interesting and engaging characters...ya know, like Surge and Kit.

[Ducktor Naldush]

Not gonna lie this first issue reminded me a little too much of Satam and some of my least favourite aspects of Archie comics and of course Forces which tried for some godforsaken reason to be a love letter to that part of the franchise, but Lanolin is cute and she has a cute bell and the moniker "woolen warrior" made me smile. 

Cute, yes, but not as cute as Jewel, I want to stress that.

And I like Whisper so, despite the very heavy US superhero comics vibe this issue has going on, it's not a complete loss

[Darkvizardberrytan]

Lanolin will become a more interesting character in time. You cant put a character in one issue and suddenly make them interesting now that they have been given a more main cast role other than that one character that leads others to the main office base for one panel and then leaves.

[MetalSkulkBane]

1 hour ago, Darkvizardberrytan said:

Lanolin will become a more interesting character in time. You can't put a character in one issue and suddenly make them interesting

 

Relic bought me in 2 pages.
Surge & Kit were an instant success (too instant I would say, but they quickly lived up to the hype).
Belle disappointed me from the start and it never changed.

Lanolin might get better, but the introduction should sell the character. Just think of Knuckles, Shadow or Mephiles, their very first scenes were amazing. I get that sheepie here is a much smaller character, but still.

EDIT: Noooo~ This post scored me enough points to upgrade my sexy Shadow rank to unseemly Eggman. Quickly, how do I lose points? Playing Mario games? Praising Penders? Complaining about Sonic's eye color?

 

[Kuzu]

I mean, she has a nice design but not about her present personality makes me interested in learning more about her. That can easily change mind you, but so far I'm not too impressed.

 

Honestly if she had more friction with Sonic, she would come off as way more interesting to me.

[StaticMania]

42 minutes ago, Darkvizardberrytan said:

Lanolin will become a more interesting character in time. You cant put a character in one issue and suddenly make them interesting now that they have been given a more main cast role other than that one character that leads others to the main office base for one panel and then leaves.

Either make a good first impression or drag people down with a slow burn.

[DaddlerTheDalek]

2 hours ago, Kuzu said:

Honestly if she had more friction with Sonic, she would come off as way more interesting to me.

That would be interesting to see.

[DabigRG]

On the real, I've been struggling to do my usual reviews for the last however many issues, but I want to try and get back into it.

 I will say this for now, though: Lanolin feels like another case of what happened with Belle(also Tangle,Tumble & maybe Surge, but they worked out)--her initial impression(s), her presented role, and her actual characterization are at odds in a way that doesn't feel congruous or to an extent effective.

 

[Slashy]

16 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

For starters, yes, this is an odd elevator pitch.
Sonic Vs his twisted and tortured imposter? Cool
Horror-ish island filled with classic badniks? Awesome
Girls-centered story with camping and going through personal issues? Sounds interesting

“Sonic & friends go to a city filled with badniks”... and? Where’s the hook? That’s what they do every week. It’s like saying “Legend of Zelda: this time with purple hat”

The Egg-pire City doesn’t look that unique, other than its mysterious growth. Sounds like nanomachines to me, but that would be a repeat of Archie’s nanite city. Plus self growing machinery is a little Metal Virus-eque and is Eggman dumb enough to try again?... he might be.

The lack of cool story concepts is something this comic has had a problem with for a while and really needs a dedicated thread for it.

Your elevator pitch for Trial By Fire is way more interesting than it actually is. You could do the same in this storyline by leaning on the living City angle. Or you could hype up Test Run as being this surreal journey through a computer simulation.

The actual internal character issues are never really dealt with through the course of the story it is quickly setup at the beginning and then quickly solved at the end. The only time a character actually deals with personal issues in that story is Jewel having to deal with her lack of confidence in her leadership skills.

 

 

[Michael Takagawa]

On 2/8/2023 at 3:32 PM, Slashy said:

Issue really suffers from tell not show. The concept of the city being alive is actually cool, but it does not seem like the comic finds that interesting so the process of discovering that information through minor plot beats or even just showing the city expand or repair itself is thrown out in favour of Sonic being unusually insightful and putting it together the moment he finds a single hint.

Since when was the last time the “sentient city” trope has been used in other forms of media? It’s too early to say wasted potential or missed opportunities when we’re at the beginning of the arc. And how is Sonic unusually insightful? There are moments that present him as more than just being the cool-headed speedster. That’s called “hidden depths”.

[Michael Takagawa]

ZealousFoX would be more than proud if he sees forums like this. Might be even a three-course meal for him.

[Slashy]

1 hour ago, Michael Takagawa said:

Since when was the last time the “sentient city” trope has been used in other forms of media? It’s too early to say wasted potential or missed opportunities when we’re at the beginning of the arc. And how is Sonic unusually insightful? There are moments that present him as more than just being the cool-headed speedster. That’s called “hidden depths”.

Yes, but it does not seem like a major focus in the story, given how little was actually done with it we did not even see how the city doing anything that could show it to be alive. Instead Sonic comes to the conclusion that the city is alive without much evidence pointing to it, I guess I would not call it a massive reach but it is a reach, and it is a reach that comes at the cost of good storytelling.

The living city angle is awesome, like it really should be the primary focus not the huge extended cast, not just fighting Eggman's robots, not going back into Whisper's trauma. 

I am convinced that the actual interesting idea is going to be wasted in favour of something fairly basic for this franchise. Like our heroes having to stop a city that is aware to their existence, constantly changing and shifting to destroy them, that is interesting on so many levels, but the focus given the previews seems to clearly be built around fighting Eggman's robots.

 

1 hour ago, Michael Takagawa said:

ZealousFoX would be more than proud if he sees forums like this. Might be even a three-course meal for him.

I would irritate the hell out of him, I do not think I despise the comic quite as much as him and if I would see committing to make the comic even less like Archie than I think it already is.

[Michael Takagawa]

Why does ZealousFoX loathe the IDW Sonic series, Ian Flynn included, with all of his heart despite saying otherwise? If this has to do with Archie Sonic being cancelled and IDW not living up to his standards or anything with Ken Penders, it doesn't seem like to be a valid excuse. Many were disappointed with Archie Sonic ending, but besides the vocal minority, they’ve moved on to other stuff already.

[DaBigJ]

9 minutes ago, Michael Takagawa said:

Why does ZealousFoX loathe the IDW Sonic series, Ian Flynn included, with all of his heart despite saying otherwise?

Don't worry about him

He's just Zealous of Flynn

[Michael Takagawa]

But did he ever explain why he despises IDW Sonic and Ian Flynn in the first place on any of his social media accounts?

Edited February 10, 2023 by Michael Takagawa

[Danj86]

On 2/9/2023 at 8:19 AM, MetalSkulkBane said:

Also: is Lanonin really the Mimic? No. I wonder if giving him those "sucker" on his hands was a terrible idea, because now audience can always easily spot him.

I was gonna mention that. They have been clever in the past by hiding his sucker fingers when it was him. Since they aren't doing that, Lanolin can't be Mimic. (Unless they forgot about the tells they established for Mimic, which would be very bad writing.)

They also established that Mimic tends to have muted colours of the person he imitates.

...also. Does the name, Lanolin have some sort of sheep pun hidden within it that I'm missing or something? I know of another sheep character from a comic that is also called Lanolin.

She's from U.S. Acres, known in other regions as Orson's Farm. She was also a regular in a cartoon I watched as a kid called Garfield & Friends. Might be a coincidence, I just thought I'd mention it.

[MetalSkulkBane]

10 minutes ago, MilesJFox said:

...also. Does the name, Lanolin have some sort of sheep pun hidden within it that I'm missing or something?

Have you tried googling?

 

 

[Sega DogTagz]

3 hours ago, MilesJFox said:

I was gonna mention that. They have been clever in the past by hiding his sucker fingers when it was him. Since they aren't doing that, Lanolin can't be Mimic. (Unless they forgot about the tells they established for Mimic, which would be very bad writing.)

They also established that Mimic tends to have muted colours of the person he imitates.

 

You can take artistic liberties to hide things that aren't obvious to the people involved. Its a little cheap, but its not unheard of. Sonic comics have used that tactic before to keep the illusion of a body double going and hide the truth from the reader.

Considering that even Whisper, when she was on high alert for Mimic during his ambush in Whisper and Tangle#2  was unable to see through Mimic's shapeshifting, despite knowing about his shortcomings - its fair to assume that only the most insightful characters are capable of seeing through his ruse's from visuals alone.

 

It's also worth noting that 1 of the 2 most insightful characters in the series is joining the party in the next issue. If it is Mimic, Blaze will notice something is off, and if not, Silver's got a spidy-sense that could also blow his cover. I'd be willing to bet the seed of doubt about Lan will start to be sewn next issue.