Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[Your Vest Friend]

Knock knock it's a preview. 

[QuantumEdge]

1 hour ago, Detective Reptiles said:

Knock knock it's a preview. 

So, once again, it looks like the secondary story beats out the main one.  Certainly on the artistic side of things, which is a shame, since Jamal Peppers used to churn out some really good stuff.  Hopefully the Phoenix fight can still be good enough though, because that boss needs to be done justice in my opinion.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Uh...didn't we see that preview earlier?

[Your Vest Friend]

59 minutes ago, Conquering Storm's Servant said:

Uh...didn't we see that preview earlier?

Unofficially, as Google Books had it. It also got it wrong as it has the end page of Wings of Fire part 2, instead of the first page of Shards and Sparks. The page with the heroes is entirely new. 

[DabigRG]

Nice to see Mighty and Knuckles team up again. Speaking of which...

On 5/18/2016 at 2:37 AM, Dr. Chaotix said:

Ah, if only I wasn't so sour about Mighty the Armadillo. Wish I was a little less bias about him and his popularity but I can't do anything about that. It's a test to see if I can get over myself at this point.

I know this comment was made a good while ago, but I was curious about the answer. What don't you like about Mighty?

 

 

[Shadowlax]

On 5/25/2016 at 3:24 PM, KingScoopaKoopa said:

 

9 hours ago, QuantumEdge said:

So, once again, it looks like the secondary story beats out the main one.  

So business as usual.

"This story not about sonic is better"

Yes.

[Toby]

I've been perfectly fine with the title Sonic stories, just Peppers' art the last three months have been lackluster.

Can't wait for Skelly in Panic in the Sky.

[ThatGuy]

I just realised something, the first three pages of the Wings of Fire preview are just them all standing around talking. Not that exposition is bad, but I feel when you have a limited page number you should try and make the most of what you have. At the very least I feel they could be walking towards the Gaia Temple, cutting down on the dialogue and maybe add a background gag here and there. It would make the story feel more lively and less Star Wars prequels.

It also displays the problem of large casts, we have 11 characters here, and it's clear they're trying in vain to give everyone something to do. Again, it's not that large casts are bad, it's that when you try to give everyone a piece of dialogue or action you dilute the focus. Which going back to the previous point is not something you want to do in a 10 page story. If this was just Sonic and Chip along with Dulcy's FFs we could have had more interaction and characterisation of her team and between Chip and Sonic.

[Shadowlax]

I think its more rushing to the finish if anything.  I think thats kind of done.

Correct me if wrong, but isnt it mentioned in one of the letter qna sections that shadow is suppoused to show up and be apart of the main book thing.

If so yeah that's done. Kitchen sink type stuff.

[DabigRG]

3 hours ago, ThatGuy said:

I just realised something, the first three pages of the Wings of Fire preview are just them all standing around talking. At the very least I feel they could be walking towards the Gaia Temple, cut down on the dialogue and maybe add a background gag here and there. It would make the story feel more lively and less Star Wars prequels.

It also displays the problem of large casts, we have 11 characters here, and it's clear they're trying in vain to give everyone something to do. If this was just Sonic and Chip along with Dulcy's FFs we could have had more interaction and characterisation of her team and between Chip and Sonic.

This. I feel like the ChunNan section as a whole is meant to be more stationary since there seems to be an emphasis on cultural differences and clan customs. And hopefully, the artwork will be able to use this as a contrast to the Dark Gaia Phoenix fight since I want to be able to hum the Chips Ahoy-esque theme during that sequence. But yes, a little more movement would be appreciated; heck, the previous issue was meant to be Conquering's return to the main book and she spent all one panels of it in the background admiring Silver Sonic's "crippled" carcass and letting an old man become bird food. Which to be fair, is very merciless of her (and a lot smarter than charging three umbra-powered pyschos), so at least it establishes her emphasis on power.

 

But the cast issue is nothing new and I actually think its being handled better recently, though I'm not blind to the setbacks it can cause. From a story standpoint, its probably meant to further convey that the Teams Sonic, Rose, Freedom, and Fighters are all doing what they can to restore the world and I like the interplay and outer-play that comes from these setups, but for every neat moment, there is a question of "why is this character here?" What purpose does Antoine serve in this story besides giving Sally an extra blade to fight with and establish a common ground with Jian? While its great that Cream, Cheese, and Big can get out in the field and be useful with Amy in Soumerca, where is Rotor and why is he the only FF not doing anything at the moment? And while the actual mewling about Chip's (and Cream) pagetime has gotten old, it is a legitimate concern at this point. I understand that the Shattered World Crisis was also a way to have Chip interact with and appreciate Sonic's World more(and despite what some might believe, he has had something to do in most of his appearances), but now that Panic in the Sky and _insertfinalenamehere_ is around the corner, I am starting to worry about whether he will have a proper amount of focus before the world gets fixed.

[Shadowlax]

He wont

 

And you some problably wont see him again like the games

[Toby]

Which is fine with me!

[Heckboy]

I just want this Shattered World nonsense to end already. Would've been over sooner if Archie didn't have so many delays.

[Shadowlax]

3 hours ago, Toby said:

Which is fine with me!

Its fine with many, the werehog and chip were never that popular. Unleashed successful concepts lied with in its gameplay. Which allways struck me odd when ian commented it on it saying children like it. Because in actuality the guns who run the sonic show know the popularity rankings. To the degree people who run the sonic social media casually threw out stats on a thread on this site to expliain why they stopped doing character polls . There were hog and chip nowhere to be found. Its also reflective the characters they continue to use.

Given all this it astounds me a bit he decided that that should be the focus of the last two years or so. Tbqh i found many weren't fond of after some months let alone years. So at this point I would not be suprised if you didn't see them atleast the werehog ever again.

And to kind of be honest, they should have just handled this like shadows game. "It happened" and its a continuation rather than the thing itself. 

To lie the blame soley on set up or two characters fells dishonest. I feel as though the biggest culprits were just not that interesting scenarios and just kinda not that good writing coming out of the main book. When the main books writing turns onto serving the purpose of exspanding the world. It falls flat a lot of the time. In few ways to be quite honest. 

Buts its coming to end, folks are gathering. Shadow is even coming in for some kitchen sink stuff. They got like 6 more interesting storylines loaded and ready to go. Its done, there were just odd choices made that i was confused on.

[Toby]

Ian based the popularity off the werehog on all the fan letters from children asking for the werehog's inclusion. Had nothing to do with Sega polls. 

[Your Vest Friend]

Shadow's coming out because of the Master Emerald thing Snively's interested in. Throwing the Chaotix in there would be the definition of everything and the kitchen sink. 

[Shadowlax]

5 hours ago, Toby said:

Ian based the popularity off the werehog on all the fan letters from children asking for the werehog's inclusion. Had nothing to do with Sega polls. 

I get that, but comic pubs get letters and requests all the time. Yeah like me and 12 other people unoronically like night thrasher, but untill marvel started doing their "the grandmaster storyline "there was no actually reason to bring him back. Fans are great, my favorite character is shadow so i know the power of fans. But i dont think a few letters should dictate the flow of your book. They may have not been the characters to drag along for this long. Maybe it should have been more consideratiom for sega data, when dealing with a narrative thread this long.

4 hours ago, Detective Reptiles said:

Shadow's coming out because of the Master Emerald thing Snively's interested in. Throwing the Chaotix in there would be the definition of everything and the kitchen sink. 

To help or fight snively?

 

Because I dont think he gives half of shit what snively actually wants.

Edit: IIRC snively was with shadow before because shadow was around something he wanted. Not the other way around, shadow was only on angel island because of eclipse iirc. 

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Wait, I just had a funny thought, what element of Unleashed hasn't shown up yet? the opening when Eggman had his space fleet and Satellite and drains the energy from Sonic and the chaos emeralds, well what if the satellite Snively is building? Not that I'm completely sure where it'd play in, but the intro is one of the most iconic scenes of the game, and it's not in yet. Just a thought.

[Shadowlax]

Hmm...

That sounds legitimately interesting

[Zaysho]

12 minutes ago, Mando-Whirl-Wind said:

Wait, I just had a funny thought, what element of Unleashed hasn't shown up yet? the opening when Eggman had his space fleet and Satellite and drains the energy from Sonic and the chaos emeralds, well what if the satellite Snively is building? Not that I'm completely sure where it'd play in, but the intro is one of the most iconic scenes of the game, and it's not in yet. Just a thought.

The circumstances surrounding the shattering of the Earth Mobius Sonic's World or how Sonic gained his Werehog form are completely different , so I imagine it just didn't fit in. I've said this before, but I honestly don't even see this arc as really being an adaptation so much as borrowing elements from the game and applying it to the a larger storyline within the comics.

[DabigRG]

22 minutes ago, Zaysho said:

The circumstances surrounding the shattering of the Earth Mobius Sonic's World or how Sonic gained his Werehog form are completely different , so I imagine it just didn't fit in. I've said this before, but I honestly don't even see this arc as really being an adaptation so much as borrowing elements from the game and applying it to the a larger storyline within the comics.

Which, to be fair, is probably what Mr. Flynn was going for.

[Zaysho]

34 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Which, to be fair, is probably what Mr. Flynn was going for.

Yeah, that's what I figure. I'm not really framing it as bad or good, rather just pointing out that it borrows elements but otherwise hardly, if at all, follows the plot of Unleashed so we haven't seen a lot of what we'd expect (e.g. the satellite opening).

The approach does have its ups and downs, however, but that has more to do with the structure of the book than how closely it actually follows the game.

[Your Vest Friend]

So, while we're passing the time to the big roasted chicken wings. How about a bit of random thinking projecting to scrambled eggs? Which Egg Bosses do you think get along the least? I have a few scattered thoughts and guesses on it.

-Tundra and Akhlut; No duh. Two leaders who used to be at war with each other suddenly being made to work together? We've already what happens there.

-Thunderbolt and everyone (except Maw and maybe Abyss); This is pretty one-sided on Thunderbolt's side, but it's also just as obvious as the above. She's absolutely obsessed with Eggman, and sees not respecting and adoring him as an affront to her. This means pretty much everyone is on the blacklist as they don't seem to like him at all (some hate him more than others). The only definite exception would be Maw (who supports Eggman), and the other possible exception would be Abyss (who seems to not mind Eggman as long as he delivers the goods). 

-Mordred and everyone (except maybe Maw); If Thunderbolt hates everyone, everyone hates Mordred. He has a reason to rub everyone bar Maw the wrong way. He's a coward and a non-fighter (so not in the good books of both Conquering Storm and Akhlut, who value strength and bloodshed respectively), he's not fond of Eggman by the looks of it (hence Thunderbolt above, although he at least has the decency to take his mission seriously), and he sold out his nation for pride/greed (which covers pretty much everyone else, as they all have people they care about (assuming Abyss falls into place where I think she does). Nephthys would probably hate him most since she sacrificed her own freedom to protect her people, the antithesis of what Mordred did). Again, Maw doesn't seem like he'd be too bothered, but then we haven't seen his dynamic with his troops and nation...if he even has any.

-Conquering Storm and Clove/Nephthys; Conquering Storm in the old continuity seemed less than fond of the idea of sacrifice for others if it compromised yourself, what with Lightning's love for her being completely disregarded because he wasn't strong enough to fight to keep his place. If that held true here, I can see her having some problem with Nephthys as the (unbeknown to her, intentional) stalemate in Shamar shouldn't be so hard to break, and she'd especially have an issue with Clove keeping Cassia around. Could you imagine if Stormy outright called Cassia a liability on Clove's potential (and by inference, she should just let her sister die)? Things would hit the fan faster than a wind tunnel.

-Abyss and Ahklut. The sea can't be that easy to split into territories, right? How often do you think there's confusion over what waters belong to who, which ends up in fighting over it? 

Really, the only character who doesn't have at least one definite potential friction point is Maw, but that's because he's so new and seems to have very clear and independent goals away from any of the Egg Bosses' plans. 

[PC the Hedgehog]

I bet Jennifer Hernandez was on cloud nine since she finally got to pencil a story featuring Mighty.

[Arranos]

So, STH282 comes out this week.