Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Yeah, I don't talk about her much, but I would really love to see Phage a bit more.

And if she's in that issue, I can't wait to see how Amy and Cream handle the AI-virus's horrible powers. That will be something to see!

[SonicComicFanboy]

Not a big fan of Phage myself, but at the same time it is nice to see Nicole get her own Villian to go up against.  And yea it will be neat to see how Amy & Cream react.

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

Some of my guesses for the freedom fighter arc (95-97)

95:

Spoiler

We could be going into detail about the castle D' Coolete, and maybe the dispute that Mordred Hood mentioned in Eggman's dozen could be explored in detail as well.

Hood could be mentioned in the issue. Villain may be related to him (or a standalone.)

I also wonder whether we could see Ants parents in flashbacks and such.

96:

Spoiler

Not too sure about this one, there could be some callbacks to Pirate Plunder Panic.

New sinister force could be some new pirates built by Nega ( of course he won't appear bacause mandates).

Blaze and Bunnie might get to know more about each other in this issue?

97:

Spoiler

Ellidy could also be returning also to help repair Nicole, meaning the adventure takes place in Isolated island.

Yeah I also think Phage could be coming back, Sally, and Amy could be facing her in the Digital world.

 

[CleverSonicUsername]

So I reread the entire comic recently, because I'm a crazy person. I saw some artwork from Mega Drive and, having not touched the comic since I was a little kid, I got really curious to see how the entire series evolved from what I remembered it being into what it now is. It was a fascinating read. I'm not sure that I liked it in the end, but watching the different eras go by was very interesting. I could write pages about my thoughts on Pender's treatment of the characters and the quality of his stories, about the drastic ups and downs in art quality, and how profound Ian's run on the comic has really been. But instead, I figured maybe I'd ask all of you something that has been bothering the hell out of me, one little thing that in my entire read has stood out more than any other.

The last super special, where Sonic fights Nagus. What the hell is up with the artwork?

I'm sure this book is infamous, and I doubt I need to explain what was wrong with it, but just in case: it's the Super Special with all those pure black and pure white panels, where - I swear - the majority of the story outright lacks artwork. I cannot make sense of how or why that happened. Did the artist fail to follow through on their obligations, submitting unfinished work too close to the deadline? Did they submit artwork that was simply unfit for publication, and Archie couldn't scramble fast enough to find a solution before the book had to go to print? Was this an intentional stylistic choice, and if so, were literal human beings in charge of that decision or was it robots?

I really need to know. I have so many hang ups about certain chapters, and I feel like I could go off until the sun comes up about them, but this is one where I really want to know what actually went down.

[johnboy3434]

It was drawn by "Many Hands". That's literally how they credit it. My guess is that whoever was commissioned to do it didn't deliver, and they had to throw in a bunch of scrub artists to finish it in time for release. No idea if that's what happened, but that's my guess.

[SonicComicFanboy]

Haha, Super Special #15, man that brings back memories.  Besides having a random battle between Sonic & Naugus there was that weird back story with Sonic & Bunnie, which I found out years later was a Parody of Sin City.  Sufficed to say it was an "interesting" way to end the original Super Specials. XD

[Kintor]

That story actually got remade in Free Comic Book Day 2011, which is now part of Sonic Select #6. Still not a particularly great story, even compared to other Sonic VS Naugus battles, but at least you can see the action in every panel now.

Also, it's a shame that the Sonic Super Specials ended on such a bad note. If Super Special #15 was a better comic the sales would have been stronger and Archie might have continued with more Super Specials for a while longer.

Still, when all is said and done I think that Sonic Universe is a better approach to extra Sonic stories then the original Super Specials ever were. It's certainly a risk running two Sonic comics simultaneously but Sonic Universe has been consistently able to support a wide variety of casts and stories without compromising the main Sonic comic.

[goku262002]

 Wasn't the last super special redone for FCBD with better artwork?

[CleverSonicUsername]

44 minutes ago, goku262002 said:

 Wasn't the last super special redone for FCBD with better artwork?

It was, the above poster pointed this out as well. Like to be clear the artwork (or lack thereof) is not my only issue with that super special, the story is wholly unremarkable and the lack of decent artwork to carry it only punctuates its faults. I never read the FCBD rewrite so I have no idea how much better it is overall. I can't imagine the art being any worse, of course, but that's not a high bar to pass (literally, the bar is just "have artwork.")

[NikoS]

10 hours ago, DabigRG said:

Wonder who this old foe could be...

I'm putting all my bets on Clove, i'll be really surprised if it ends uo being someone else

edit: thinking a little more, Phage makes sense too. now i'm divided between the two

Edited January 25, 2017 by NikoS

[Your Vest Friend]

If I were a betting woman, I'd make a bet with you because I'm pretty confident it's not her. 

[CleverSonicUsername]

My bet is Mama Robotnik.

[Borvoc]

1 hour ago, CleverSonicUsername said:

My bet is Mama Robotnik.

Maybe Archie can get permission, and Mama Luigi could join in too.

 

[Barry the Nomad]

My letter was published in that god awful Super Special issue, lol.

Edit: Did a SEGA News Bits featuring my thoughts on the whole thing:

 

[BlueSpeeder]

Gosh, man, I'm so sick of hearing something bad happening with Archie and the Sonic comics. It seems like every year there's some sort of problem: Penders, the reboot (granted this ended up doing fine, at least to me personally), the four-month hiatus of the Sonic comics back in 2016 that still was never explained, and now this. A lot of this is probably hot air, and perhaps the comics will return back shortly. It's just, I'm so irritated with the amount of complications that occur at Archie or somewhere else that puts the Sonic comics at stake.

Sorry for being pessimistic about this, I'm just tired of the comic's fate seemingly being held with barely any tangible threads. Hopefully this whole issue with the subscriptions or whatever passes by soon.

[goku262002]

14 hours ago, CleverSonicUsername said:

It was, the above poster pointed this out as well. Like to be clear the artwork (or lack thereof) is not my only issue with that super special, the story is wholly unremarkable and the lack of decent artwork to carry it only punctuates its faults. I never read the FCBD rewrite so I have no idea how much better it is overall. I can't imagine the art being any worse, of course, but that's not a high bar to pass (literally, the bar is just "have artwork.")

Yeah you should probably go and do that while the bad version is still in your head.

[CleverSonicUsername]

1 hour ago, goku262002 said:

Yeah you should probably go and do that while the bad version is still in your head.

I mean, I can't imagine anybody could make that story compelling to me in the first place considering what it was even about.

[Megabeatman]

3 hours ago, CleverSonicUsername said:

I mean, I can't imagine anybody could make that story compelling to me in the first place considering what it was even about.

Well fortunately for you, I reviewed both Super Special 15 & the FCBD remake in this video so you can see the difference: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qpioyHccOvs

[SonicComicFanboy]

12 hours ago, Barry the Nomad said:

My letter was published in that god awful Super Special issue, lol.

Edit: Did a SEGA News Bits featuring my thoughts on the whole thing:

 

 Interesting video.  I still don't Think Archie Will be dropping Sonic.  (At least not until they know if Riverdale is gonna bomb or not)  But I will say if the property did go to another publisher I would pick IDW.  IDW had shown they genuinely care about the properties they license, and their TMNT book has been great!  Also I imagine if IDW got it we might just be able to pick-up where we left off, as IDW being a bigger studio then Boom would probably be able to convince SEGA to let the Freedom Fighters stay in the Book and hopefully let Ian, Tracy, Hesse, Hernandez, etc  stay on Story and art!

 

 There's also the fact that they basically  picked up The Disney books where they left off (Donald & Uncle Scrooge have their own IDW numbering, but with the overall Number in Parentheses under it, so something like that with Sonic would be nice.)

 

 But yea, until we hear otherwise I will just assume it is business as usual and Archie will publish Sonic ad nauseum for Eternity!  I mean hey, just 58 more years and we can get to issue #1000!!! XD 

[Kintor]

1 hour ago, Megabeatman said:

Well fortunately for you, I reviewed both Super Special 15 & the FCBD remake in this video so you can see the difference: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qpioyHccOvs

Nice YouTube channel, it's good to see that someone is taking a look at some of the more obscure back issues.

I had a quick look at a couple of your other videos. I agree that the art in the Sabrina crossover special was just terrible, what a waste. Also, I look forward to when you review Mecha Madness next month.

[Your Vest Friend]

Archie have at least confirmed that Sonic Super Digest #18 is cancelled, by the looks of it. 

[Big Panda]

Source please?

[Your Vest Friend]

Source 'Qs.

[NikoS]

well, since they announced the return of Super Special Magazine, i'm not surprised to see Super Digest end.

 

[Your Vest Friend]

I am, because they're not really competing with each other. Digests are a big commodity for the Archie company due to where they are sold.