Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[Illuminous_Orb]

There is this article on Comic Book Resources that quotes a few things from the SdCC panel. There is another new image from issue 251 as well.

 

Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man panel kicked off in style at Comic-Con International in San DIego with an 8-bit beat soundtrack playing under a trailer of things to come in the wake of the current "Worlds Collide" crossover event.

 

"I've been working on this story for over a year now, and I still get excited watching that trailer," said Paul Kaminski panel host and Editor of both "Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Mega Man." Other panelists included "Sonic," "Sonic Universe" and "Mega Man" writer Ian Flynn, Archie Comics President Mike Pellerito and artists Ryan Jampole, Jon Gray and Evan Stanley. The main topic of discussion was, of course, the conclusion of "Worlds Collide" and what happens to all three titles in the event's fallout.

 

"About three months before Archie got the Mega Man license, I thought a Sonic/Mega Man crossover would never happen," Flynn said. "But I plotted one out anyway because I thought it'd be fun. Then, Capcom said they wanted to do a crossover with Sonic."

"So the crossover's great, but lets talk about the aftermath beginning this fall," Kaminski said, passing the buck to new "Sonic the Hedgehog" artist beginning with issue #252, Evan Stanley.

 

"The story arc's titled 'Countdown to Chaos,'" she said. "I've been following the crossover and have a great responsibility of reintroducing everyone to Sonic and it's exciting. What's important for me is, while there have been a lot of changes happening, making sure the heart and soul of the book remains -- that it's back in a new light that's refocused."

 

"'Chaos' is going to shock you, but issue #256 is the one that shocks the most," Kaminski stated. "Some of the most fun I have is trying to make Rotor as cool as possible -- and now he's back."

 

"We've been away from the Freedom Fighters for so long and leading up to the crossover they went through a whole lot -- the team was torn apart," Flynn said. "'Countdown to Chaos' is bringing back the Freedom Fighters. It's been too long and it's the right moment to bring them back and see what they've been up to.

 

"We started building up how Doctor Eggman's soldiers were organized leading up to the crossover," Flynn continued. "Now his army has some structure and we're introducing into the ranks a lot of new characters and robots that are far more than just your standard bad guy."

 

 

"You'll be seeing answers to questions left dangling before the crossover began," Kaminski added.

 

On designing and redesigning Tails Doll, Evans said, "I thought, how can I make it as horrible as possible without getting censored, but Paul never stopped me. Tails Doll has a whole new look for issue #252 for reasons you'll find out later."

 

"As for 'Sonic Universe,' Tracy Yardley is returning to writing Sonic comic books," Kaminski said. "He's writing a story that's a sequel to 'Treasure Team Tango' and takes place on Blaze the Cat's world. You'll also be seeing more of Bean and Bark -- it's a piratey tale with swashbuckling adventures. And Captain Metal. For those of you who think you know his origin, you are right."

 

"When writing Bean, I access my inner-crazy person," Flynn said. "He has to be funny."

 

Kaminski then pulled attention to Archie's collected editions of "Sonic" material, announcing that the "Worlds Collide" storyline will be collected in three different volumes beginning this fall. "If I get my way, we'd do a collection of all 12 chapters," he said.

"That's up to them!" Pellerito repsonded, waving toward the crowd.

 

Also on the way is "Sonic Super Special Magazine" #8, which containc a sticker book, and in issue #9, 20 pages of prequel material to "Sonic Lost World," the new videogame from SEGA and Nintendo. Additionally, the "Sonic Saga Series" begins to collect all of Flynn's run on the book and "Sonic Select" #8 collects the "Tails" miniseries for the first time ever.

 

Switching gears to "Mega Man," Flynn said, "Before the crossover, we were building up to something with Ra Moon -- now he strikes and it gets ugly. Dr. Wily experiences some technical difficulties."

 

"The title of the arc is 'Black Out,' featuring Robot Masters who haven't gotten the spotlight yet," Kaminski said. "Those of you who think Robot Masters are getting defeated too fast, well, I'm glad you've waited around."

 

"There's a whole of canvas to work with on Robot Masters," Flynn said. "There's not a whole lot of restrictive lore, which helps. With Shadow Man, there might have been some lingering rumors he's from space -- who knows? We're going to have a lot of fun with the 'Mega Man 2' and 'Mega Man 3' Robot Masters."

 

"My favorite Robot Master to draw isn't actually in any of the games -- it's Quake Woman," Jampole said. "I love Quake Woman. Not only is she the first female Robot Master, but she appeared in the comic book first. She's very robotic early on and has a coming of age story attached to her. It's been crazy drawing Mega Man, too."

 

On drawing the chibi variant cover for "Sonic the Hedgehog" #250, Jampole said, "It was very painful to do that cover. The many, many emails going back and forth, about trying to turn Sonic -- who already has a very big head -- into something with a very big head. It was a lot of fun, but hard to do. This crossover was my first time drawing Sonic ever -- it was scary, but really fun."

 

Two fans dressed as evil geniuses Dr. Wily and Doctor Eggman took to the mic and asked when their backstory would be expanded on in the comics.

 

Looking at Wily, Flynn said, "Give me time. I want to tell the story of why Wily got banned from the Robot School."

 

 

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Honestly, it sounds like they are bringing the original freedom fighters back into the limelight to try and reprioritize away from the characters they lost, which isnt entirely a bad thing, and Rotor getting back into action, now that is a good thing!

[Spidey3525]

I wonder what the Tails Doll will look like.

[mistercokehold8]

A question about the crossover folks. Does anyone else think it started out a little slow, before ending the spectacular way it has? 

[Dantemustdie00]

That's how most arcs start out dude, or at least that what most people say anyway.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Dantemustdie00

[mistercokehold8]

I wonder what the Tails Doll will look like.

 

Wait their redesigning Tails Doll? He's gives enough nightmare fuel as it is!

[Sonictrainer]

 

Whoa!

[QuantumEdge]

I wonder what the Tails Doll will look like.

Nothing cute like his original form, that's for sure.

Honestly, it sounds like they are bringing the original freedom fighters back into the limelight to try and reprioritize away from the characters they lost, which isnt entirely a bad thing, and Rotor getting back into action, now that is a good thing!

It's not at all a bad thing.  I've been waiting almost two years for the Freedom Fighters to come back and putting them back in the spotlight is just what I and I'm sure many others have been waiting for!

[bwrosas]

Nothing cute like his original form, that's for sure.

It's not at all a bad thing.  I've been waiting almost two years for the Freedom Fighters to come back and putting them back in the spotlight is just what I and I'm sure many others have been waiting for!

 

exepct maybe for a few die-hard game fans and Sonamy fans

[Shikushi]

I've been buying the comics since issue 215. I've also collected some Sonic Super Specials, Sonic Select Book 2, Sonic Legacy 1, and Sonic Archives Volume 7.

[QuantumEdge]

exepct maybe for a few die-hard game fans and Sonamy fans

That's true.  It might rustle a few of their feathers

[Your Vest Friend]

Nah, people who plain don't care about them wouldn't have been excited either.

[QuantumEdge]

I'm starting to think we will see Scourge again, since Ian answered the question as to whether he'd be back with saying "We'll see."  I know it's a very vague and neutral sounding answer, but I just get the feeling we could be surprised.  Also, it's nice to hear he wants to write shorter story arcs.  As much as I found the Mecha Sally arc to be pretty good, it does start to lose its luster as it keeps going on.

[mistercokehold8]

Question, I saw this somewhere. but I dont know if it's true. Did Penders create Fiona?

[scourgeandfionafan123]

Penders created the young Fiona Fox robot, Ian Flynn created the older, awesome, and evil version of Fiona Fox. 

[Vertekins]

Penders created the Auto-Automation Fiona and the real Mobian version of her. Flynn merely re-characterized her extremely unbelievably and made her into the terrible character you see today.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Penders didn't create the Auto-Automation, that was Gallagher.

[Mogtaki]

The thing is, it doesn't really matter anymore since Penders said Archie can use the characters he created if they wanted to, they'd just have to pay royalties to him for using his characters.

 

So they're safe unless they don't want to pay extra to have them in the comics.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Well, I just had a thought, we just had an arc that involved Mighty and ray heavily, and while they are former game characters and thus safe in the big picture, the question is are they going to show up in countdown to chaos with yet another redesign? also there is Nack as well seems like he might be back to bug sonic too

[Your Vest Friend]

I doubt they'll be in Countdown to Chaos due to there already being enough characters as is.

Regarding Fang in the SU arc, it's a bit more up in the air, but since Ian has said that he wants to give more backstory to Bark and Bean then I kind of think he'll be left out so his team mates can have the focus.

[Tani Coyote]

I'm starting to think we will see Scourge again, since Ian answered the question as to whether he'd be back with saying "We'll see."  I know it's a very vague and neutral sounding answer, but I just get the feeling we could be surprised.  Also, it's nice to hear he wants to write shorter story arcs.  As much as I found the Mecha Sally arc to be pretty good, it does start to lose its luster as it keeps going on.

 

I think Dragon Ball Z's Namek saga sums it up in how horrible long arcs can become.

I like his idea - smaller building blocks but ultimately just as large an overall structure.

 

Penders created the Auto-Automation Fiona and the real Mobian version of her. Flynn merely re-characterized her extremely unbelievably and made her into the terrible character you see today.

It is always a fun day when a character suddenly turns evil to create drama. Even better if there's no real set up for it (whether like this or like Penelope in Sly Cooper 4); Fiona's reasoning has tons of holes. She said she liked the "bad boy" nature of Scourge but... since he was attempting to be Sonic, how exactly did he act bad?

It really just seems like a forced way to eject her from the main cast as well as create some tension.

[Sega DogTagz]

 She said she liked the "bad boy" nature of Scourge but... since he was attempting to be Sonic, how exactly did he act bad?

 

He was even more reckless and unruly than Sonic was during his time impersonating the main article. He was noticeably more confrontational to his duties, even more of a showboat - and that's to say nothing of his penchant for macking on every female in the city. He abused the good will Sonic had built up over the years.

 

Scourge did plenty to stand out, even while acting as he thought Sonic would.

[Tani Coyote]

Scourge did plenty to stand out, even while acting as he thought Sonic would.

 

Oh I remember his dating every woman around town; the other parts slipped my mind however.

 

I suppose it makes sense...

 

However, none of that's really evil so much as hot-blooded. ...which makes Fiona's change to evil seem a bit bizarre.

 

But hey, every good writer needs to write a bad story somewhere, right?

Edited July 28, 2013 by Ogilvie Maurice

[RobotOmega]

So, what's the next series coming out after the Worlds Collide arc? Is it called Countdown to Chaos?"

[Spin Dash]

So, what's the next series coming out after the Worlds Collide arc? Is it called Countdown to Chaos?"

 Yep! The main Sonic the Hedgehog comic book'll have Countdown to Chaos, Sonic Universe'll have Pirate Plunder Panic, and Mega Man'll deal with Black Out: The Curse of Ra Moon.

 

Can't wait to see what Ian's got in store for those, but I'm also pretty sad that the crossover's ending. It was amazing! I loved every issue! But I'm sure these'll be the same way.