Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[Your Vest Friend]

45 minutes ago, Sean said:

So the humble bundle's add-on is up aaaaand... it's just a low-quality compilation of various other stories in the same bundle. Only new comic in it is Babylon Rising part 1.

Was hoping for Worlds Unite or at least some older issues that didn't contain any Penders/Bollers characters.

-Heh, Babylon Rising part 1. At least the early backers didn't miss out because that issue was re-released recently. And it's only that part because that's the only part of the arc that doesn't feature off-limit characters (I think it did get edited to omit a line mentioning one).

-Worlds Unite volume 1 came out today. Unlike Sonic#283 which would likely not be that affected by the bundle release, I don't think Archie would want that much competition with a more expensive trade release that doesn't run on a subscriber system.

-I...don't know how many pre-reboot issues aside from the ones here are free from non-Ian comic characters (it's not just Penders and Bollers). Maybe you could get away with Sonic Universe #1 if it isn't already there, but no others come to mind (The rest of the first Shadow arc had Feist and Hope, M30YL is obviously not viable, Knuckles Returns has the Downunda FF, Journey to the East has Monkey Khan, the first part of Tails Adventure has Mammoth Mogul, Shattered Mirror has Enerjak, Jani-Ca, Fiona Fox and Prelates of various comic characters, Scourge: Lockdown focuses on characters that can't be used, the rest of Babylon Rising ties into the Mobotropolis arc that was going on so has appearances by comic characters, Scrambled has comic characters appear all over the place, then Chaotix Quest has Friar Buck then the entire desert region).

[DabigRG]

Question: Is there some recent mandate that completely forbids reprints of anything that includes Pre-reboot exclusive characters, period?

[MetalSkulkBane]

8 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

So just to be clear. This is Ian's low point of writing because...

1. A character created to be an expy because Penders hit them with something they couldn't see til the last minute, where it was too late to rewrite the book hasn't appeared yet.

2. Emotes and Spam jokes

Fair enough, I haven't read the issue yet, but the lowest point? At the end of the day, it's a recap story for over 25 issues of story before the finale, and considering we had stories like Endangered Species, or some of the shitty secondary stories (Not Ian, but still) like A Nice Day to Start Again, and this is the worst?

Okay, I presented my thought in a wrong way. Those 1-3 were my extra thoughts on the issue. The core problem is that the main story is just repeating what we already know (or we can just read in "the story so far" at beginning of the issue) using ungodly amount of pages. Humor, drama, character, those stuff are subjective. But everyone can agree that wasting viewers time is a bad thing. This is 10 page story that could've been told in 1-2 pages or even don't exist at all. (Back up could work alone, would just need tiny rewrites.) The sad part is that Flynn once wrote something similar. In Megaman 4-parter Ra Moon Saga also had a prologue issue, issue 28. Done much, much better than here.

And Endangered Species had good start, Butler's artwork and some nice silent moments, at very least.

[Your Vest Friend]

15 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Question: Is there some recent mandate that completely forbids reprints of anything that includes Pre-reboot exclusive characters, period?

Not mandate per se, but if the creators are willing to sue over story royalties for old stories as well as future content, it makes sense that it was all nixed.

[Toby]

I loved the issue. Nice, quiet little set up for Panic in the Sky's action packed arc. Fell in love with Gemerl, and he only had two lines. The first story gives a sense of hope that things are about to finally go well, and all will be fine. The backup crushes those hopes with Eggman's realization he's being played.

[Your Vest Friend]

PS.

This got an update earlier today.

[QuantumEdge]

I'm so happy this will likely be the story where we see more of the Chaotix at home, instead of throwing mentions of it.  Being strapped for cash to pay rent, or even buy food is just part of the comedic charm those guys give out in bundles.  Really hoping this is set to the backdrop of a city with a somewhat down to earth plot that pokes fun at the noir detective archetype. 

[Dejimon11]

Did somebody call for an update?

[Heckboy]

2 minutes ago, Dejimon11 said:

Did somebody call for an update?

Hmm, who could that be at the door?

EDIT: Maybe it's the landlord

Edited June 29, 2016 by Mister X

[QuantumEdge]

7 minutes ago, Dejimon11 said:

Did somebody call for an update?

They even gave him a fedora!  And it looks like it's a parody of noir movie posters, font and all!  It really is what I was wishing for! 

[Kazhnuz]

According to the eyelashes, it seems to be a female character. No hedgehog, as there's no mono-eye... I hoped for one moment it was Constant Vigil (as she's a Flynn character and I hoped that she had been "Uncle Chucked", being only Espio's master and not mother anymore.), but it don't match at all (yup, it was a bit foolish to have that hope, but idk xD).

[King Scoopa Koopa]

Ian interview about Mega Drive.

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

The core problem is that the main story is just repeating what we already know (or we can just read in "the story so far" at beginning of the issue) using ungodly amount of pages. The sad part is that Flynn once wrote something similar. In Megaman 4-parter Ra Moon Saga also had a prologue issue, issue 28. Done much, much better than here.

And Endangered Species had good start, Butler's artwork and some nice silent moments, at very least.

To be fair, 1. Megaman just got out of a crossover and was addressing several minors points before moving into the story arc and 2. Unless you know something I don't know, it technically tells us new information for contextsake, it just didn't use it's page space very well.

Endangered Species is a story arc I revisited just today (for a myriad of reasons) and I wouldn't mind doing a retrospective look back on it at some point. I still like it to a certain degree, but there are a few details I notice now that I think could've been done better with a little more time/effort.

[Echidna Adventurer CC14]

An arc that's just a noir detective story parody starring the Chaotix would be so much fun. XD

[DabigRG]

That cover looks so cheap, lazy, and stupid. ...I love it!

[azoo]

I just read #261 - #272 for the first time, in one sitting too! And guess what?

I love it.

Tyson Hesse and Diana Skelly (what up Vantoggle/Nerfuffle!) are my favorite artists on the team due to how expressive and cartoony everything is that they do, and the amount of lore that is adopted from all the various Sonic medias to make a cohesive universe is some kind of wonderful. Major kudos to Flynn for all the work he's done with this series, it's brilliant.

Tbh though.. I still can't get used to how the Freedom Fighters are always around (I don't think that feeling is ever going to go away), and I do think the huuuuge roster of main characters that the comic tends to POV-jump to and from is really exhausting. But all of said characters are very enjoyable so far, and I have nothing really bad to say about any character in particular! They're all at least interesting, it's just.. yeah I guess I still prefer a smaller main cast. One that's closer to just the game cast too (as main-main-main characters), but I guess this is as close as we'll get on that..

But yeah, that's my feelings on it so far after attempting to catch up. Should I skip the Sonic/MM second crossover altogether btw? I'm not at all interested in it, and I hope it means nothing to the overall plot.

[Echidna Adventurer CC14]

If you're not interested in it, it's easily skippable. Everything reverts to status quo at the end save for Sonic, Mega Man, and a few other characters being vaguely aware of what happened, everyone's worlds being revealed to be part of a nexus, and Eggman's Cacophonous Conch disappearing. (From what I remember.)

[Dee Dude]

Confession: I actually hated Diana Skelly's art at first which was strange because I normally approve of zaniness in Sonic but it was because I felt the constant expressions were a little too distracting from the comic but that was probably because I more used to more normal and serious looking art from artists such as Yardley and Stanley.

That said, I obviously love her art now because of well she draws the characters and how cute they generally in her style. Plus most of her character expressions are indeed win.

Glad I got that off my chest.

[Toby]

Azoo, the entire crossover is undone in the end anyway, so you won't miss anything at all. The only two things to note when the crossover is done is 

Spoiler

Histroy changed the first crossover. Wily got the blue Chaos Emerald when it was sent there at the end of Sonic Generations. Wily is the reason Eggman was able to escape from the White Space. And the second thing is that Eggman's conch for the Zeti is missing after the crossover.

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

1 hour ago, Dejimon11 said:

Did somebody call for an update?

I wonder whos at the door. And the hat suits you Vector.

[LukA8]

2 hours ago, Mister X said:

Hmm, who could that be at the door?

EDIT: Maybe it's the landlord

This sounds so perfect I really expect it, because even game-Vector hates (working for) his landlord and would view him as some grand evil worse than Eggman. And of course his main antagonist is a woman.

[Soniman]

You can totally skip Unite

I mean it's already a crap cluster fuck, it being non canon just makes it even  easier 

[King Scoopa Koopa]

50 minutes ago, DaddlerTheDalek said:

I wonder whos at the door.

Knock-knock, it's Knuckles?

(I know it's not.)

[DabigRG]

A thought about STH 283 that didn't occur to me until just recently, but anyone else think the odds are stacked against Cream a bit much?

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

5 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

A thought about STH 283 that didn't occur to me until just recently, but anyone else think the odds are stacked against Cream a bit much?

Any easier, and her potential impact would risk being pointless. Higher stakes make higher impacts.

As for the issue itself, I don't really get what was wrong with it based on impressions from those who got the issue early. This is the one issue where it doesn't look like they've rushed things, and the whole point of it was to get us geared up for the climax. It wasn't anything special, but after previous issues had them constantly fighting with almost no rest in between, this is kinda what we've been asking for more of.

I can see it not being as gripping as some would like, but given that it's a breather issue and a prelude of what's to come, isn't that kinda the point?