Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[Your Vest Friend]

Penders' main problem was that he wasn't particularly interested in Sonic, he was more interested in the microenvironment he'd created for Knuckles. It wasn't quite as bad when the Sonic comic was separate from the Knuckles one, but as soon as that was forced to stop, things just went to kingdom come, and Echidnas became the basis to almost everything, especially the ones like Dimitri, Lien-Da and Julie-Su.

And it literally was just the Echidnas; in spite of being Knux's equivalent of the FFs, the Chaotix were very uninteresting and insignificant. They mostly acted as his yes-men, aside from Vector who was made an ass out of just to show Julie-Su being so good.

And then Ian came along, nuked most of them, and made the Echidna thing so much more bearable.

He also never looked at what other writers had done, so his stuff could be outright contradictory to what had already been established in previous issues (thus being very confusing).

[goku262002]

His decision to "make Rotor gay" didn't even effect anything in the comic, so I'm not sure how that's just as bad as anything else Penders was responsible for, such as all the Echidna stuff and the "romance"/soap opera-ish drama. There was never any real evidence of it and even if it had been 100% canon, I'm not sure how that would have been an inherently bad concept (although, Penders would have handled it horribly, but that goes without saying).

Honestly, I just threw that out there because it was the first thing that came to mind and not to blurt out too much to spoil tenchibr here. but I'm glad nothing came of it, Penders would've done a terrible job handling it and I don't think Ian would've been able to fix it.

Edited May 26, 2012 by goku262002

[Mangoaxe5]

<----Is thinking right now: "Is Penders' part really that bad?"

In the beginning there was nothing really wrong with Penders writing. But after he became head writer with issue 144 his work started to go downhill. If he had stayed on he would have had Sonic be a player.

When I resumed writing SONIC as a main feature with issue #145, I made it clear I was aiming to correct the fiasco Karl foisted upon fandom with the infamous slap. Both Mike and I were determined to correct what mainly perceived at the time as the worst moment in the book's history. However, neither of us saw that getting corrected over the course of an issue or two or three. Rather, it was decided that Sonic would play the field for awhile, allowing him to discover exactly why Sally was always the girl for him.

Source: http://www.kenpender...c.php?f=5&t=122

Um, they didn't. SEGA were happy to let Rotor be gay as long as it was kept relatively quiet. It was Ian who overrode Penders on that.

Actually Ian didn't know that Penders had plans for Rotor to be gay. Penders didn't share his ideas with the other people at Archie.

Personally my biggest problem with Penders writing is that he wasn't good with giving each character their own voice. When he was the writer he give them all the same voice. Take the Chaotix as an example. When Penders would write dialogue for them they didn't have any real personality. They might as well have all been the same character. The only one that stood out was Vector and that was because he was written to be a complete jerk to Julie-Su.

Edited May 26, 2012 by Vampfox

[Your Vest Friend]

Actually Ian didn't know that Penders had plans for Rotor to be gay. Penders didn't share his ideas with the other people at Archie.

That's the point; he overrode it out of being unaware of Penders' own plan for Rotor (NOT out of some malicious intent as some would say). Penders was really bad at communication in general.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

He also never looked at what other writers had done, so his stuff could be outright contradictory to what had already been established in previous issues (thus being very confusing).

Welp, time for me to take a trip and re-read all of those previous comics for the hell of it. Ironically, aside from the whole Echidna's thing, I've been completely oblivious to the fact that he was involved in making the love triangle mess...right?

[Mangoaxe5]

he was involved in making the love triangle mess...right?

Penders was involved in the Sonic-Sally-Geoffrey St. John love triangle.

The Sonic-Sally-Mina love triangle was created by Karl Bollers.

[tenchibr]

Whoa, so many responses, so let me digest this... I have been reading Knuckles side-by-side for the sake of continuity...

I did notice that Knuckles' stories had this maturity level blown out of proportion, like Locke and Lara-Le, and how she's like "You should have been a better father, bla bla bla", "You were right, I was a bad husband too..."

I kinda found it entertaining.

[ChaosXVI]

Personally I loved most of Ken's Knuckles stories, they were some of his best. They only started to tank after Knuckles 25 when it seemed like he was just waiting for the book to be cancelled...

[Alice Twilight]

I love this comic book.

Still surprises me how much it's changed since the first issue.

[Mangoaxe5]

Ladies and gentlemen Ken Penders no longer has a wikipedia page.

[Komodin]

Ladies and gentlemen Ken Penders no longer has a wikipedia page.

Oh dear, Wikipedia don't consider him notable anymore... was he ever noteworthy to begin with?

[goku262002]

Ladies and gentlemen Ken Penders no longer has a wikipedia page.

What was his wikipedia page link? anyone managed to screencap it before it was taken down?

Edited May 28, 2012 by goku262002

[tenchibr]

I think Penders should send me an autographed sketch after bringing his name back from the dead.

[goku262002]

Trust me the guy is anything but dead in our minds. though I wish he'd get the fuck out of our fanbase before he makes a complete fool of himself.

Wait...

[Alice Twilight]

What's going on guys?

[Your Vest Friend]

Uh, stuff is going on with him. Wasn't he supposed to post a new artwork by now?

[Alice Twilight]

Trust me the guy is anything but dead in our minds. though I wish he'd get the fuck out of our fanbase before he makes a complete fool of himself.

Wait...

[Your Vest Friend]

Preview for #237.

[Blackbell]

Got this a whole ago- Loved this issue- Especially how they've set it out! We finally get to see Mecha Sally do something and get to see an more evil side to the doctor! Cannot wait for the next issue!

The back story was meh- Mina and Nicole's talk was basically Mina apologizing throughout. Not really consistent with the previous stories.

[goku262002]

I tweeted newrama and asked if the images can be uncompressed. hopefully some of you can do the same.

Feel free to use my bit.ly link:

http://bit.ly/JJGQ8c

[tenchibr]

Why do I like to see Eggman succeed?

P.S.: I love this cover, totally makes up for the Amy one.

Edited May 29, 2012 by tenchibr

[Alice Twilight]

Thank you for the scans.

And yay, Silver is getting another story in Universe.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Why do I like to see Eggman succeed?

P.S.: I love this cover, totally makes up for the Amy one.

Because Eggman is awesome in general regardless of the medium he is in?

When it comes down to it, Eggman is the only character in the entirety of the Sonic Canon who has remained almost consistently awesome in terms of characterization and personality. Every other character, even Sonic has generally gone through a rollercoaster at some point in their career; only Eggman has remained relatively consistent in his ratings.

[goku262002]

Guys, do me a favor will ya?

Newsarama says that the image quality for that preview is coming up fine for them but we can all see its coming up terribly. If you guys have a twitter and the image quality for the preview is bad for ya, think you can reply to them via this tweet?:

https://twitter.com/Newsarama/status/207487842119729154

Thanks.

Edited May 29, 2012 by goku262002

[Yong]

The back story was meh- Mina and Nicole's talk was basically Mina apologizing throughout. Not really consistent with the previous stories.

Mina's behavior in previous stories was not consistent with previous previous stories. Ian's just quickly resolving an overall bad decision.