Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[SonicComicFanboy]

 The stereotype that boys think girls are icky is severely out of date though.  Plenty of little kids male or female grow-up warching the classic Disney films, many of which Snow White, Beauty & The Beast, Mulan, Little Mermaid, etc have female leads.  Honestly I don't think most kids care if a Cartoon or comic stars a boy or a girl as long as they enjoy it.  The whole girls have cooties mindset really hasn't been true of most kids for a goid nuber of decades now.

[Borvoc]

Yeah. I think the cooties thing is taught to kids by parents who think it's cute as opposed to kids actually thinking that way naturally, but maybe that's just me—I never thought girls were gross.

Ian apparently said that female-lead issues do sell less. We can debate whether or not it's the fact that they're being lead by female characters that causes them to sell less, but I don't think we can automatically assume that publishers are sexist simply because they're responding to these lower sales.

Personally, I'd love to have a certain amount of female-lead stories, not because of feminism or anything like that but for the sake of variety and natural flow. I also feel like we already have a good amount of female character representation in the Sonic book and in Universe, but it's possible I'm just reading for casual enjoyment as opposed to counting female characters, etc.

[MetalSkulkBane]

I don't get it, there were already 3 SU arcs with female leads. Shouldn't there be strong numbers telling whenever they sell better or worse than ones with male heroes?

[Borvoc]

From what other are saying, it sounds as though Ian said they sold poorly (again, I didn't hear Ian say that—just going off previous comment). It's a shame, as all the SU arcs have been amazing, IMO, regardless of who they focused on.

[Shadowlax]

I don't think the problem is that the boys are going " this is a girl book" 

I think the problem is, Sega maybe kind of doesn't push their female characters... well or even at all. 

You have a cover with amy sally and cream on it, you see an annoying stalker, someone you don't know or might not care about  ( and if they do know who sally is they might thing she is, mary sue) and a character they find annoying and they don't care about. That isn't to say that these characters can't be more than that, its just that sega rarley presents these characters in any other fashion than... that. And might not like it, the someone says " oh well boys don't like girl books" not understanding it wasn't the girls themselves but how you presented them. And the cycle of self fulfilling prophecies continues. 

Ian was correct blaze gets around this Debuff.. by being an actual cool character.. even in like.. sonic 06. And having fire powers, it isn't just fire powers, she was presented in many ways basically a rival character. She's presented with , before sega flandered everything in a way that was unique. She gets around that, bonus buff she has frigging fire powers. 

The Debuff blaze does have, is not that many people know her, sega stopped pushing her , the comic bareley features her. And for those who do remember who she is, due to sega's ... removing a female character from their actual cool story to make them apart of a less cool male characters story. She is now and forever, and sega wont stop associating this with her either, associated with sonic 06 and possibly leaves a bad taste in peoples mouths. 

I'm not going to pretend sexism doesn't exist. But I think its less the audience being sexist and more  , the people people in charge of the brand creating a situation with their incompetence where as it justifies a sexist narrative. So I think its less the audience and more... the people who let amy be a pile of garbage in the video games for the longest time. 

People don't buy girl books, because sega kinda made a lot of their female characters unappealing or ... didn't talk about them, but that last part doesn't get acknowledged its just " people don't buy girl books" .  Sexism causality loop. 

The audience, nah. Sega?  wouldn't disagree with you if you said that they kind of are yeah 

[Your Vest Friend]

5 hours ago, SBR2 said:

When I was a kid I proudly enjoyed The Powerpuff Girls and Kim Possible and That's so Raven and tons of shows considered "For Girls". Don't just assume from Stereotypes that Boy's automatically hate anything that has girls in the focus.

The only show there I'd say falls squarely under the "It's for girls!" idea would be That's So Raven; PPG and Kim Possible likely fall under the same banner as Blaze due to their general concept of riffing on Superheroes and Spy Thrillers respectively (although that being said, I was a girl of the 90's and I can recall the PPG merchandise being very gendered despite the show being far more neutral).I know you said there were others, I'm just noting that the ones you used were kinda debatable. 

And really, I think the issue more lies with the enforcement of gendered behaviours and material goods through the use of social (and sometimes legal) pressure combined with dogmatic marketing and the perpetuation of ideals over decades, if not centuries, than any individual little kid. That's why this sort of issue is such a difficult one to get to the root of, and I'm not sure if just pushing the females of the comic forward (as it already has, a bit more than the males it could be argued in certain contexts) would do anything to fight that tide. But it's cool that the comic is pushing for balance anyway. 

 

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

There's that and the audience of the industry. TV Shows and video games are much more available to a broader group compared to comics which are niche, so you're gonna have a wide difference in who sees what--comics can sell in the thousands a month, but TV Shows and Video games can reach the millions in weeks.

[Borvoc]

I agree that the characterization of not only the female character but also that of all the characters has been off in recent Sega games—I'd say Unleashed was the last game that took its characters seriously and represented them well. Characterize all the characters better, including the female ones, and people might start liking them better.

Gendered merchandising in an interesting point too. I'd love to see more sonic merchandise for girls and women. I don't think there's any reason Amy and other female characters can't be merchandised similarly to how Minnie Mouse, etc., have been.

[Shadowlax]

While I would agree with you that yes characterization has been off in recent years. I would argue with you , with females its been off... kind of forever.I can go into it , but to keep it brief, if you were a female character, you were always related to sidekick/girlfriend character. Or you were literally a child. 

As far as gendered merch, I don't want a minnie mouse thing. I want the girls to be able to be cool by themselves. I think that would work fine enough, maybe get rid of that blaze sonic/silver  thing and let her like or be related to  no one and just be cool by herself. More things that are " who is this character" and less " who is this character in relation to what male character" . And allowing characters to grow like that would work. 

[SonicComicFanboy]

 The Final Volume of Worlds Unite has been pushed back to the last week of March according to the publisher.

http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/537195/sonic--mega-man-worlds-unite-3-by-sonic--mega-man-scribes/

 So expect it March 28th in bookstores, March 29th in comic shops.

 

Also the trade for the Champions Arc is set for April 25th & next trade after that, Planetary Pieces is set for August 22nd!

 

And Super Special Magazine #14 is still listed for Feb 22nd which is just 2 weeks away, hopefully we will get lucky and it actually comes out!

[doctorbenMD]

14 hours ago, Borvoc said:

I don't think there's any reason Amy and other female characters can't be merchandised similarly to how Minnie Mouse, etc., have been.

1. They're not as iconic as Minnie Mouse. 

2. Do their action figures sell as much as the Sonic ones, or are they shelf-warmers (obviously I'm talking about Amy)? Because that is absolutely always a deciding factor. 

FWIW, I don't think any of these things are going to change anytime soon until a big company (like Marvel or DC) pioneers a big push for a female-led superhero movie--which we're getting this year in Wonder Woman. IF Wonder Woman goes on to be a critical and box office success (I say "IF" because of the current state of DC movies), that'll make companies more open to push their female characters (perhaps as much as the male ones). And with Marvel, the fact that Kevin Feige (the president of Marvel Studios) no longer has to report to Ike Perlmutter (CEO of Marvel who felt that since "girl toys don't sell, they shouldn't be front-and-center") means the Captain Marvel movie will get a huge push, especially with recent comments saying she'll be the "most powerful character in the MCU." 

Once that happens, and once numbers for female-merchandise goes up, then and only then will other smaller companies follow suit and push their female characters. It may not be something we like, but those are the facts until things change with the people who have the money and power to change them. 

[FriendBot]

Just gonna drop by and say Og Man Out is the second episode Flynn wrote for Boom Season 2, now let's see what Evan Stanley has to offer.

 

[SBR2]

Can't wait loved Flynn's last episode. I hope there's another season or at least some writer turnover onto another series because I want more Flynn written Sonic Cartoons.

[Graystripe2000]

 

https://www.twitter.com/tssznews/status/829739990552821764

[Tracker_TD]

Huh. Well that's a twist.

A positive development; let's just hope the damage hasn't already been done. 

[johnboy3434]

"In its infinite prudence, Archie has seen fit to settle the lawsuit by giving Fulop the rights to their entire contract with Sega."

[Meta77]

23 minutes ago, johnboy3434 said:

"In its infinite prudence, Archie has seen fit to settle the lawsuit by giving Fulop the rights to their entire contract with Sega."

What's does this mean

[Your Vest Friend]

I think it's a joke on the whole uncertainty on the comic.

But then, I don't think this legal case is what's affecting the comic coming out, so I'm not expecting anything to change as a result of this. 

[Betz]

Shadow Fall set for Sept. 12th. Let's hope it stays that way.

https://www.amazon.com/Sonic-Universe-Sagas-Shadow-Fall/dp/1682559467/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1682559467&pd_rd_r=K1CYTNY8XEZF8MNPHJ0A&pd_rd_w=8K8rC&pd_rd_wg=BU32d&psc=1&refRID=K1CYTNY8XEZF8MNPHJ0A

[Barry the Nomad]

Somebody on YouTube is telling me the comic is back in April because "SEGA forgot to sign their license again". Is there any truth to this? I think the phrasing "forgot to sign their license again" sounds very amateurish and something a child would say when attempting to explain how license agreements work. I cannot imagine something as simple as "Oh! I forgot to sign the license! That is why there was a delay!"

[PC the Hedgehog]

*shrug* Who knows? They're humans, and sometimes humans do silly things that can cause big probs.

[Your Vest Friend]

It was rumoured that Archie had for a tiny bit, but that was quashed by Tyson Hesse. 

[Graystripe2000]

19 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

It was rumoured that Archie had for a tiny bit, but that was quashed by Tyson Hesse. 

Link? Or was it on here?

[Your Vest Friend]

8 minutes ago, Operationgamer17 said:

Link? Or was it on here?

I can't remember how it started, I dunno if someone proposed it here or if it migrated to here at one point. However, Tyson shot down that idea on Twitter. 

[Borvoc]

Tyson Hesse shot it down first. Now VEDJ-F shuts it down again using Tyson's tweet. Double shut-down!

Single source, but whatevs.