Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[Forte-Metallix]

I know, but I imagined Super Sonic would share his Chaos Energy to give us Perfect Chaos vs Perfect Dark Gaia.

If Chaos 0 can hold all the oceans in place and fight at the same time, surely his Perfect form could do the same.

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

Whoa, I got the issue before most people did. Pretty wild experience.

I have to say, that issue was...um...let's just say "uneventful".

Spoiler

And when I say uneventful, I mean spectacularly uneventful.

The first story was literally just Sonic and Sally broadcasting a message to all of their allies telling them about their plan to restore the world, and Big, Cream, and Gemerl going to Acorn Palace and locking up the Gaia Keys and Chaos Emeralds. And it was revealed that Tails Doll is spying on them.

That's it. That's...that's literally it. Nothing actually happened.

I just...ugghghhhhgggh. I don't remember the last time I read such an unsatisfying comic book story. I mean, there was nothing wrong with it other than...well...you know...the fact that nothing happened. Maybe I should be impressed they managed to stretch this non-story out enough to fill up all the pages they needed filling.

The second story was significantly better (not saying much). I'm not going to give play-by-play spoilers because that isn't my thing, but suffice it to say Eggman picks up the signal of the FF's broadcast (thanks to Tails Doll) and begins coordinating with Phage, the Battle Lord, Wendy, Tails Doll, Metal Sonic, and the Hooligans to create a counter-plan. I mean, technically nothing particularly exciting happened within it, but it does have me excited for next issue, and that's not bad really. Plus, the character interaction was awfully fun and there were several really humorous moments. I also find that I'm really loving Jennifer Hernandez' work. For a back-up story it's perfectly fine...or at least it WOULD be, if we had a proper story for the first half of the issue.

Oh, but wait - one last frustration. In the second story, there was a page and a half devoted simply to Dr. Eggman watching the broadcast, with the dialogue exactly copied from the first story and very little in the way of commentary from Eggman. Seriously. It makes me think they could've easily fused the two stories into one and used the extra page space for SOMEthing better than what we got...ugh. What a waste. What an utter, abysmal waste.

 

[Jason Berry]

I am so ready for this "World Adventure" saga to be over with. It's gone on far too long.

[Toby]

Like I always say, thank god Kaminski's gone. Maybe now we can stop worrying about a new crossover or Marvel tier events mucking up story flow every six months.

[Your Vest Friend]

See, that's exactly what it sounded like. Usually with spoilers, I may not know the full details of what went down but I can get the gist of it from what people write. Here, Falconpawnch's spoilers were jumping from character to character by the letter without saying anything of their contribution (aside from Cream and her group), and I doubted that was because Falcon was forgetting to say what they did.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

So this is basically a filler story with no purpose whatsoever?

Really? Fucking really. You know what, here's my list of story ideas that could have been done instead:

• Eggman travelling into the core and discovering Perfect Dark Gaia is nearly complete and stupidly believes he can brainwash the creature
• Dark Gaia attempting a mental assault on Sonic's mind in order to try influence his Werehog form again, realizing that Light Gaia has been reawakened
• The Freedom Fighters being forced to fight off an assault on Castle Acorn in order to reclaim the Chaos Emeralds (with the back up perhaps briefly showing the FF in this story, and covering Eggman's set up like it was done in the story)

Just do something other than having the goddamn characters walking around doing fuck all. I want to be excited for the conclusion to the Shattered World Saga but it's getting a little difficult when we have pieces of idiotic filler.

[Toby]

On the bright side, when Archie goes out of business you'll never have to worry about it again.

[Mauro Fonseca]

oooooh don't tease me toby the future could never be so golden

 

[Your Vest Friend]

The funny thing is that literally the only part of the first story that's important (going off solicits and the regular PitS covers) is getting Gemerl and King Acorn into the action, while all the characters in the second story have some use.

[Toby]

I'll blame Paul Kaminski for this until the day I die. I'm certain Ian had something more interesting planned, but after Worlds Unite mucked things up to hell and back just to pad Paul's resume to jump ship to DC, not to mention the three month delay due to Archie's incompetence, he decided to just throw nuance out the window and speed through getting the rest of the Gaia Keys and Emeralds.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

8 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

That reminds me of character called Vulpina from Miraculous Laybug cartoon. When she was advertised a lot of people got exited before knowing anything about her. When she was revealed to be villain a lot of people were angry for "ruining" the character.

Obviously that's extreme example, but I wanted to ask if it applies to you? That you assumed that she's X and got slightly disappointing when she turned out to be Y?

Not exactly. More like I'm okay with X being Y, just that I would have preferred it to be X. Not really disappointed that it's something else.

So, regarding the latest issue, I don't know about you guys, but it sounds more like it's just setting things up for the climax before it ups the ante. It is the first part of the arc, tho given how they've rushed things, I can see the mixed views on it.

[Soniman]

Looool

As someone been enjoying shattered world (I like big stories) this just gives me more reason to hate World's Untie, what a souless waste of time, damn man

[Kuzu]

Ok, this arc is boring me now; I just want it to end.

[Toby]

Panic in the Sky goes back to full issue stories, and it's going to be pencilled by Skelly. Surely the worst is behind us now.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Oh really? 

Good, was hella sick of these two-parts per issue arcs that rushed the pacing.

[DaddlerTheDalek]

26 minutes ago, Toby said:

Panic in the Sky goes back to full issue stories, and it's going to be pencilled by Skelly. Surely the worst is behind us now.

Good to know!

[DabigRG]

Sonic 283 was...unique.

 

The main story goes for a format you wouldn't expect in an action comic that helps summarize the overlapping story arc that's lasted us the last three/four years. That is a welcome change of pace that wasn't very thought through.

I actually quite like the idea of the Freedom Fighters not fighting for an issue in favor of a commercial message. The people around the world listening and responding to it was also a nice touch. The problem lies more in the execution: The splash images of Sonic and Sally giving the message were cute and all, plus they emphasize that they are the focus, but here's something I didn't notice until the second time: these images take up a good percentage of page space, with 25% of it being an empty background and Sally explaining the Temples being the biggest offender. Additionally, the views of their allies around the world, particularly Rocky Jungle Zone and especially Mobotropolis, are given their own panels with no text dialogue, outside of reminding you of who everyone is. These two examples literally redoes the same Sonic and Nicole pose for the above panel in one, while the other has half of its space dedicated to a bookcase. The sequence of them jumping at the call was the most well done part of it, since it actually focuses on a single unified aspect across the world.

I can't help but think that the set up of Cream and Big travelling through Mobotropolis could have been a 3rd story of its own if the page space was better utilized. After all, Cream has been a relatively minor member of the main cast for the most part, so establishing her home life and journey for a bit could have helped set the tone of her struggle to be an active hero in the next issue. Not to beat an already (annoyingly) pudding'd horse, but it does feel a little shortchanged.

The backup story was handled in a much better fashion, because while it does mirror the Allies watching the FF by having Eggman do the same, it does so in one page before having Eggman actually set up the villains role in the next issue by individually interacting with them. Though I admit the entire page of Eggman watching the Freedom Fighter's message,...that we just saw in the main story, did bother me. At the very least, use elipses to isolate the important parts while focusing on Eggman and Phage's reaction. However, it at least knew to use the page space to its advantage, otherwise. We do learn that Phage f'd up royally when Eggman created her (...) to steal and erase info by erasing 60 tb of Eggman data, which is what she has been trying to make up for. Also, I don't usually comment on this unless it really catches my attention, but the way Ms. Hernandez draws the Tails Villains is ...interesting. BattleLord's head and beak are drawn as a single-colored object and his neck fur is much scruffier; also, his zipper teeth is starting to weird me out now that I'm looking at them. Witchcart in general looks...cute, which is weird and her eyes are orange. And Bearenger and Carrotia looks like something out of something like Ren and Stimpy, with his scruffy dirtiness and her stoned/endorphinic expression. 

The issue is a neat callback, summarization, and setup. Overall, I actually quite like this issue but it does have some problems that hold it back a bit.

Also, who was the character in the offpanel supposed to be?

[therealfalconpawnch77]

33 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Sonic 283 was...unique.

  Hide contents

Also, who was the character in the offpanel supposed to be?

Spoiler

As said in my spoilers they are Dr. Doom and Darth Vader

 

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

You know, I think I should point out something about #283 - I didn't hate it or even dislike it while reading it. I actually kind of enjoyed it. It's not so much that it was bad, it's just that, looking back on it and thinking about what happened in it, it's awfully dissatisfying. It's not really bad for what it is, honestly, and I probably ended up sounding more negative in my mini-review than I felt while reading the comic itself. What was there was pleasant, but I just want something more from a comic. And just thinking back on what happened, I was so shocked by the utter lack of content that I couldn't help but express that.

[Toby]

Just finished reading it and it was a great setup issue. I loved everything about it from the art, to the writing.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

14 minutes ago, Monkey Destruction Switch said:

You know, I think I should point out something about #283 - I didn't hate it or even dislike it while reading it. I actually kind of enjoyed it. It's not so much that it was bad, it's just that, looking back on it and thinking about what happened in it, it's awfully dissatisfying. It's not really bad for what it is, honestly, and I probably ended up sounding more negative in my mini-review than I felt while reading the comic itself. What was there was pleasant, but I just want something more from a comic. And just thinking back on what happened, I was so shocked by the utter lack of content that I couldn't help but express that.

So, on a lesser scale, it's basically the Force Awakens, where we'll only be able to appreciate it at it's true potential once everything else is released?

I didn't even read the impressions because I want to go in blind but is that what I'm getting here correct?

[shdowhunt60]

It's probably more of a case that nothing really happened at all: it's blatant padding, which is something we've had since we got back from the crossover. By all means, this Unleashed adapt should've ended a long time ago, and it's just getting dragged relentlessly. 

[Shaddy Zaphod]

10 minutes ago, shdowhunt60 said:

It's probably more of a case that nothing really happened at all: it's blatant padding,

Well at least they're being accurate to the fact that Unleashed is the game being adapted

[Your Vest Friend]

Okay, so having read it, I think the issue is...so-so. 

-Cream's part of the first story is actually pretty good because she gets to interact and show off her character.

-The exposition part...I'd be more welcoming if I hadn't been burnt out by the hiatus/the last three issues (to be fair, others got burnt out on Worlds Unite, so I lasted a bit longer than that). There's some character moments, but not really enough, and I'm not in the mood for an issue that's basically exposition overload with everyone getting a panel to go "Okay".

-Back-up follows a lot of the first story's pattern, but it's livened up by the contrasting personalities on show.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I just realised what the FF story sounds like! Remember Sonic #275 (Worlds Unite Part 9-11 I think if I remember correctly. I can't remember the specific part) where most of it was just images of Sonic, Mega Man and the SEGA/Capcom characters fighting Sigma without any dialogue whatsoever? That's basically this issue from the sound of it.