Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[MetalSkulkBane]

52 minutes ago, Zaysho said:

I didn't know they were still using Mobini (or Mobian, for that matter), though. In SU#85, Nephthys asks "where are the little animals?" after Maw's attack. Seems inconsistent.

I think whole arc wasn't edited properly. This would explain why Wendy wears Egg Boss uniform before joining Eggman.

[Zaysho]

Just now, MetalSkulkBane said:

I think whole arc wasn't edited properly. This would explain why Wendy wears Egg Boss uniform before joining Eggman.

Maybe.

Eggman says at the beginning he thought he had a working relationship with Wendy, so I presumed she had those clothes from the last time they worked together (even if she wasn't an Egg Boss necessarily), and she states that she'd trade relics for tech, so it didn't seem out of the ordinary. (I haven't read the final issue of the arc, but Wendy being the final Egg Boss seemed to be a pretty popular prediction, so I'm not too surprised xP)

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

3 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Sonic Universe 86... With each issue I was afraid how comic will manage 18 characters at the same time and it finally caught up with in this issue. Singles scene with Egg Bosses aren't bad, some are even interesting (party for Clove is adorable), but they distract from the core of the issue (Eggy, Crystal Sonic and Twins).

But the arc is called "Eggman's Dozen," so they're as much a core of the issue as Eggman, Metal/Crystal Sonic, and the Twins. The entire reason they're there is to back Eggman and retake Eggmanland because he couldn't do it alone and needed his very best on the case.

Granted, I was expecting something a bit more myself, and the resolution was somewhat anticlimactic, but that needed to be reiterated.

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

Honestly, I would be happier if the name "Mobini" disappeared in favor of "small/little animals". I've always found the term itself a bit on the odd side and it's not really necessary. I guess in the old continuity, when all the anthropomorphic animals were specifically explained with the gene bomb origin story and all that, specifically naming anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic animals each with a special name to clarify that they're different wasn't a bad idea, but now that that's all gone, they're just "antro animals" and "non-anthro animals", no special names required (not that I expect them to use those terms in the book or anything, of course, that would be even weirder xD). In fact, it just makes things a little more confusing. Might as well go with the more straightforward, descriptive name, especially since it was even used in the Adventure games. Anyway, "Mobini" sounds kind of Italian to me

[Your Vest Friend]

Well, Archie seems to treat them differently anyway. In the comic, they're like an awkward in-between of being just animals but also being cartoony like the anthro cast. In the games, they're basically the Toads/Yoshis/whatever of the Sonic franchise. 

[Toby]

It's a case of an anthro gorilla mobian selling ballons at a zoo, next to a normal animal gorilla in a cage. That anthro mobian gorilla is then attacked by a robot powered by a tiny gorilla mobini.

[Your Vest Friend]

Whoa, Sonic #281 went down to 6,773 direct market unit sales. 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

Just read SU #86. It was a fun finale for the arc.

I kinda guessed that Wendy would be the 12th Egg Boss. Thunderbolts reaction was funny.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

As far as the whole "Mobini" thing goes, I think they should at the very least keep the term "Mobian" for the non-human humanoids - rolls off the tongue and sounds less generic than calling them "anthros."

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

1 hour ago, Conquering Storm's Servant said:

As far as the whole "Mobini" thing goes, I think they should at the very least keep the term "Mobian" for the non-human humanoids - rolls off the tongue and sounds less generic than calling them "anthros."

Agreed on all fronts. I definitely wouldn't want the term "anthros" to directly appear in the comic, that would feel almost...meta. But I also wouldn't want them to be called "animals" or something because that just feels bizarre and unfitting; they're really more like humans than animals in many ways, and non-anthro animals exist in their world too. (There's actually a really old Penders/Kanterovich story from the humorous days in which Bunnie uses the term "animal kind" in place of "mankind", yuck xD) So, having a unique term to designate them is rather helpful at times. And like you said, it actually does "roll off the tongue".

[MetalSkulkBane]

"Mobini" I can take or leave, but I think everyone prefers calling Sonic characters Mobians.

On 15.06.2016 at 9:53 PM, Conquering Storm's Servant said:

But the arc is called "Eggman's Dozen," so they're as much a core of the issue as Eggman, Metal/Crystal Sonic, and the Twins. The entire reason they're there is to back Eggman and retake Eggmanland because he couldn't do it alone and needed his very best on the case.

Granted, I was expecting something a bit more myself, and the resolution was somewhat anticlimactic, but that needed to be reiterated.

Fair point, although first and last cover tell you a different story. At least I excepted some kind of teamwork maneuver to take Metal down or something.

Still, the main point of this story was to make us like Egg Bosses and it really succeeded, considering how unimpressive they felt at start. They definitely beat old Grand Masters. (Too bad StH 281-218 prove that you can still make boring stories with them.)

[QuantumEdge]

Y'know, having looked through all of the concept art recent issues have shown, I really want Vincent Lovallo to draw an issue if the opportunity knocks.  His style is just really pleasing on the eye and keeps the proportions right.  It somewhat harks back to the Adventure aesthetic, which suits my taste to the ground.  Of course, being editor will likely throw any chance of it happening out the window, but I find it very easy to imagine him doing a top job.

[Toby]

Depends on if he can actually draw more than just concept art. Wouldn't make for a very good issue if he isn't a le to tell a story with pictures.

[Your Vest Friend]

No, but at least let him do something for the book, even if it's like an off-panel picture. This is pretty good considering he did all of it. 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ccq1FnKWEAALutn.jpg:large

 

[MetalSkulkBane]

Since we have some time to kill before next issue, who's everyone favorite Egg Boss?

(For me it's Maw from guys side and Cassia & Clove from gals)

[Shadowlax]

5 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Since we have some time to kill before next issue, who's everyone favorite Egg Boss?

(For me it's Maw from guys side and Cassia & Clove from gals)

Secret Eggboss snively. 

It was an inside job the whole time. 

 

[DabigRG]

6 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Since we have some time to kill before next issue, who's everyone favorite Egg Boss?

(For me it's Maw from guys side and Cassia & Clove from gals)

That's an excellent question, thanks for askin. 

I guess Axel is pretty up there, since he is not only the first new character we see, as well as sellin me on the Egg Army Unit thing, but he also falls into that "awesome comic character with meaningful interaction/ development on a game character" category along with many of my favorite comic characters like Scourge, Finitevus, and Thrash.

Hood is a character I both like and just kinda think is okay. I did like that he has a little more depth postreboot to make his skills even more impressive. and his backstory a little more interesting and reasonable.

Tundra kinda fell into the meh category after the reveal, so I'm glad this arc gave him a freudian excuse that makes his behavior not necessarily sympathetic, but understandable.

Clove is another neat character that makes for an interesting evil counterpart to Sally. The reveal that her weapon is a scythe of all things was unexpected though.

Thunderbolt is definitely up there considering her comedically adorable design, her dedication to Eggman, her legitimately deadly personality, and, most recently, going toe to toe with Knuckles alone and actually making Sonic and Mighty worry for their friends safety.

Nephthys is another addition that I like, from her creepy design, to her maternal cleverness. Her face has seen better days, though....

Battlekukku XV is another cool classic-game character whose powers are at odds with his personalities. He is perfection!

Akhlut's shirt bothers the heck outta me and his outline and provoking attitude aren't doing him any favors.

Abyss's sassyness is such a joy. She is practically a dead ringer for Jakuzure, right down to the voice.

Conquering Storm's popularity leaks over from prereboot, but I can't help but think that's all. I don't know why I don't like her that much, considering her willingness to join the frey and her charging the Witchcarters brashly.

Maw is mixed bag, as I mentioned before several pages back. Objectively speaking, I like his color scheme, his cryptic morality, and his bizarre fascination with technology. However, while I know comparisons to prereboot have been rampant since the beginning, his [inverted] fur-and-eye coloring, marsupial species, oral powers, warped morality, science-based obsession, mysterious presence, and suave demeanor remind me so many previous characters that it honestly rubs me the wrong way.

[Your Vest Friend]

The Halloween ComicsFest list of titles was announced yesterday. No Sonic titles involved, so you don't have to look out for that. 

[Arranos]

SU86: It was a good read.  I like how they started to acknowledge Lost World as the next potential Arc. I hope we at least have a year before we move into it. Have some more development of the world. Maybe officially introduce us to Purple Fish Girl (who I assume is Princess Undina).

There's also plans for Mach, Max, and Sharps that are in the works, so maybe they'll appear in that time if they choose to wait before doing the Lost World adaption.

Then there's Eclipse. Where is he? What's he doing now?

There's so much given to us, with Chaos Titans being one of them. I think after Unleashed... Shattered World, we should take a break and have some other stories.

...I wrote this at 1 am. If you can't tell, I'm tired.

[FriendBot]

Oh golly, it's been a while since I posted my thoughts on the comics.

Ok, so for the main issues, 281 and 282. The main story for 281 was the usual "here's Sonic and crew and re-introducing this character and their short backstory while encountering another Egg Boss", I mean it's not bad but  it's pretty tiresome quickly and it becomes even more blatant that Flynn i just phoning it in when it comes to these stories and it affects it quite a bit. The second part was more enjoyable tho, seeing Dulcy interact with Sonic and the others was pretty enjoyable. Would like to know more about her team tho, Jian is the one I like the most because her being an ex-Egg Army member could bring some interesting ideas with her loyalty to the team and stuff. But that's just my surface-leveled thoughts and not really putting too much thought into it so yeah. The secondary stories as usual are a more enjoyable read, seeing how Bunnie talking Teanchai about her struggles and how she can relate to him in some way was touching and I like that stuff so yeah pretty neat. But boi, here comes the Mighty Knuckles man! 

The more I see Knuckles in this continuity, the stronger I feel that Knuckles in the games was boring as hell. Like he was not interesting whatsoever, I think I might even say that Knuckles in the games is very overrated (yep, I'm dropping that bomb) but that's for a different time. Pretty much the prequel to Shattered, it was a damn fun one. Knuckles and Amy didn't really get to interact a whole lot together in this one but I guess we'll get that in the actual arc. But damn are they so much fun, I mean it was adorably funny how Amy was playing around with the controls of Thunderbolt's base. And also Knuckles has a bit of a jokey/snarky side to him (which is something you never see until Lost World after 3&K) when he teases Mighty about him going soft or challenging him to a sparring match at Angel Island. I want this kind of Knuckles more so badly in the games, ok enough Knuckles ranting. I probably Iblis Triggered a lot of people as it is. But yeah, that was just fun!

Eggman's Dozen is finally done and I gotta say it was pretty good. Not great but pretty good.

Getting to know the Egg Bosses and how they react to one another does give some insight to these characters that we'll obviously see when they're fighting against Sonic and friends in future issues. I still stand that Clove and Thunderbolt are my favorites but I'm intrigued with Abyss and Maw. Grand Battle Kukku XV was a pleasant surprise to see him return and can't wait to see him and Speedy get in on the action in the future as well. I also like how Tundra and Akhlut can't stand each other and are willing to kill each other if they get the chance. Conquering Storm and Mordred Hood being back are nice thought they don't really interest me that much so I hope they grow on me as the times go on. Oh yeah, Nephthys and Axel. Nephs is also another character that I'm not feeling for at the moment either so again, hope I grow to like her too. Axel is just meh, although giving his speech to Eggman about how even though the Bosses can't stand Eggman, they will help him in the name of the Egg Army and for their soldiers. That was a nice moment for him but he's still meh to me. Oh yeah, Wendy is the final Egg Boss. I like how she's pretty obvious with her crush with Eggman so I'm curious to see how she and Thunderbolt will interact with one another. Maybe they'll try to please Eggman the most to get his attention or something, that would be fun. Ol' Wally was alright, nothing really bad about him as a character but nothing really make me go WOW, I'm so glad they brought him back. But maybe we'll seem him to do shape-shifty things in upcoming issues to manipulate our heroes? *hinthintwinkwink* Oh yeah, and anytime ol' Eggman takes the fight to himself and goes against Crystal Sonic was awesome, I would love see stuff like that happen more but rarely works just as well, if not moreso. And I love it how this version of Eggman is a much more malicious and has a darker side outside of that obvious hamminess we've all come to really love to the Eggster, it works for this universe since he is a power-controlling dictator and needs to show who's the boss to his Egg Bosses.

Overall, really liked Eggman's Dozen, the main story was meh at first but got better at the final part and the secondary stories were good as usual although the story prologuing Shattered was much more entertaining.

[QuantumEdge]

14 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Since we have some time to kill before next issue, who's everyone favorite Egg Boss?

(For me it's Maw from guys side and Cassia & Clove from gals)

Funnily enough, those are pretty much my choices as well.  Cassia's a little too irritating though, so I'll stick with just Clove.  Thunderbolt and Battle Kukku are a good laugh, but I'm more inclined to liking Maw for two reasons.  1. He's a thylacine, so animal bias plays a part here and 2. He's a good enough character to make me invested in wanting to know more about him.  Luckily that bit at the end of Dozen seems to suggest a future plot.  Oh, and he's Sonic's answer to Kirby, so that's 3.  I would like to pick Connie and I like the idea of making her a tad less heartless from previously, but they've played her so tactically bankrupt it feels really out of character and difficult to fully enjoy her.  It wouldn't be so much of a problem if they figured out better ways for her to be defeated.

[King Scoopa Koopa]

I like them all, for different reasons. Don't really have a favorite yet. I guess the top ones would be Axel, Battle Lord, Maw, and Mordred right now.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

On 6/17/2016 at 3:48 PM, MetalSkulkBane said:

Since we have some time to kill before next issue, who's everyone favorite Egg Boss?

(For me it's Maw from guys side and Cassia & Clove from gals)

Well my second favorite (like everyone doesn't know who my top fav is  ) is Nephthys, but for much different reasons than what the comics have shown.

I like her design and motives. Her design just oozes an aura of authority that says "this woman is not to be fucked with" and her motives make a lot of sense as to why she joined the Eggman Empire. But her motives tie into one thing I don't like about her: her alignment.

By alignment, I mean the scale of how heroic or villanious she is, and she skirts too far to be a hero to my liking. That's not saying she can't have sympathetic and reasonable reasons to be who she is, but she seems more like she'd be better suited as an anti-villain that wants the best for the world but disagrees and opposes the actual heroes in how to go about it.

She has a real serious demeanor with a balance of reasonability and commanding aura. And all that tied together makes me desire her to be legitimately pushed further to Eggman's side while maintaining her sympathetic reasons, because she looks like she would be a great second in command to the empire (Maw can make a great third in command, and if Ian didn't rush and make her less effective, I'd put Stormy as fourth in command). If Ian can do that, I would he so happy, but I'm not gonna be too fussed if he decides against that and takes her character elsewhere so long as the direction is coherent and makes sense. (There are parts that are fuzzy, like her retaking Eggmanland butusing it as an excuse to wreck some of his stuff)

Her belief of Eggmman being unstoppable is dead on to an extent. Sure Sonic and his friends defeat Eggman, but he always keeps coming back, sometimes more dangerous than before. I feel Ian really missed an opportunity to explore that back when she was first revealed, showing us more of a grey side to those who willingly join Eggman.

After her would be Cassia and Clove, Abyss, Axel, Thunderbolt, and Maw in that order.

EDIT: Have time to expand that last sentence now.

I like Cassia and Clove for the designs and personalities. Cassia being the young, energetic, yet capable (if immature) Egg Boss who can put up a decent fight, while being the kind of girl you just feel sorry for and understand why she went along with the cybernetics her sister wanted her to get. Clove has that maturity and motive that says that just because the heroes fight Eggman's forces means they're in it for glory and power - some are doing it merely for survival, either for themselves or a loved one. And that laser scythe is just damn cool. A bit of a shame they want to leave the Eggman Empire, but at the same time it kinda comes off as stupid on their part to just think they can join the ranks of the most feared and infamous man on the planet and think they can sign out when they feel like it. Nevermind that the two of them have been given the highest ranks in his forces, which is a question of why the hell would you want to leave that after joining said feared and infamous man? Granted, in this continuity, Eggman is sadistic and evil, so I suppose it's understandable to want to take advantage of his technology and then get out of dodge when you have the chance knowing who he is, but anyone should see from a mile away that it wouldn't be easy given that a person like that would always have a catch.

Abyss is rather simple as a character. She's a pirate, and a rather enthusiastic one. She's loyal to Eggman, yet amoral as long as she gets to do raids and plunders and not much else. Plus, it's awesome to see a squid mobian.

Axel and Thunderbolt are about even, although I'd rate Thunderbolt a bit higher than Axel. Axel is stern, strict, and a bit basic, but his logic in taking care of the people he's aligned with, even if he doesn't like them, puts him higher than most other Egg Bosses I'd like. Thunderbolt, however, is the much more interesting character. She's small, she psycho, she loves working for the most evil man on the planet. And despite her comical size and portrayal, she is dangerous as fuck. Despite being incredibly small, she takes on Sonic's group and nearly wins if it weren't for Sonic going Werehog at that moment, then she has the balls to take on fucking Knuckles and Mighty (well mainly Knuckles). You gotta give her props.

Maw is the last of my favored Egg Bosses, because I love his warped morals. Not that fully interested in how mysterious he is honestly, but that isn't to say I'm not interested in seeing what he has going on behind the scenes. Now if there's one thing I think needs to be done, it's to fix that broken as fuck ability he has with his cybernetics. Sucking in foes like Kirby is too much without something that can counter it, and would probably be better shooting laser beams instead. But hey, I'm not writing the comics here.

[Shadowlax]

16 hours ago, Arranos said:

 

Then there's Eclipse. Where is he? What's he doing now?

 

Either you gonna find out in the next few issues or when shadow gets another SU run

[MetalSkulkBane]

10 hours ago, Conquering Storm's Servant said:

Well my second favorite (like everyone doesn't know who my top fav is  ) is Nephthys, but for much different reasons than what the comics have shown.

I like her design and motives. Her design just oozes an aura of authority that says "this woman is not to be fucked with" and her motives make a lot of sense as to why she joined the Eggman Empire. But her motives tie into one thing I don't like about her: her alignment.

By alignment, I mean the scale of how heroic or villainous she is, and she skirts too far to be a hero to my liking. That's not saying she can't have sympathetic and reasonable reasons to be who she is, but she seems more like she'd be better suited as an anti-villain that wants the best for the world but disagrees and opposes the actual heroes in how to go about it.

She has a real serious demeanor with a balance of reasonability and commanding aura. And all that tied together makes me desire her to be legitimately pushed further to Eggman's side while maintaining her sympathetic reasons, because she looks like she would be a great second in command to the empire (Maw can make a great third in command, and if Ian didn't rush and make her less effective, I'd put Stormy as fourth in command). If Ian can do that, I would he so happy, but I'm not gonna be too fussed if he decides against that and takes her character elsewhere so long as the direction is coherent and makes sense. (There are parts that are fuzzy, like her retaking Eggmanland butusing it as an excuse to wreck some of his stuff)

Funny, I never got that feel from her.I mean, she looks looks scary with that mask and cape, naming herself after goodness of death and stuff, but I got impression that it's just for show. When's she not in control of situation she acts like concern mummy caring for her troops, her allies, a little cute animals. Even when she attacks Carrotia she says "Hold still, I'll make it quick" like she just wants to end this violence.

Also (that's just personal preference),I think Battle Lord would be second in command. He has strength, authority and ego for that. (But if Eggman was choosing he would put Clove, since she seems smartest and would hate every minute of that, but would do it anyway for Cassia's sake)