Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Im going to be honest were in the second act of this crossover and I recall that during this point of the first crossover a majority of the complaints were pretty much "nothings happening" and until the 3rd part came thats when every bodies opining quickly changed. I know Im in the minority here that thats actually enjoying what I'm getting. My only complaint about this is what donnie said. Sticks and her "team" are completely pointless and add nothing i get they're for comic relief but lets be real here all these characters can be pretty much funny on their own. It really should of been the main Boom cast and maybe lyric(I can see him getting along with sigma until he wants to back stab him). If the reason why the Boom counterparts can't be there is for brand reasonings that pretty stupid hypocritical. This is the same company that released Sonic generations a game that has both classic and modern characters and to my knowledge the classic and modern are 2 completely different franchises. But I digress Im enjoying this and I'll wait till the after all this is over till a give my full thoughts

 

Yeah, but the problem here is the entire thing so far has felt like just a big bunch of nothing. As I already said, 6 issues have gone to setting up alone, and apart from the story with Rock and Mega Man X, it feels like this entire thing has been nothing but battles and a few jokes with Sticks. Other than that. It feels worthless. The art isn't that great, the story is incredibly meh, and overall I just can't get into it that much.

[DarkLight]

I wouldn't mind it as much but it feels like there isn't a plot here. It feels like this was just a excuse to get these characters in lackluster battle scenes.

 

Pretty much. Basically there's a bigger emphasis to put in more fanservice than putting in actual substance, which WC, for all it's faults, did exceptionally better at juggling these two things than WU so far.

[SSF1991]

i feel like Sticks and her team are only there for comic relief which is rather unfortunate considering the rest of the Boom cast would've had just as much comic relief if not better. Plus she's proven to be very capable as a fighter so she could've definitely been able to hold her ground especially with so many characters on her side.

 

What a wasted opportunity.
 

TBF, Worlds Collide is a tough act to follow and the need to just 'plus' everything to make it feel bigger than WC was the main goal. So I knew from the back of my head that Worlds Unite wasn't going to fully capture what made WC so great.

It is but it doesn't need to surpass it. As long as the writing was good I would've been just fine with it. But, in my opinion, it hasn't. The whole thing has just been a letdown.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I'm going to be totally honest as well. Sigma doesn't feel like that much of a threat here, and the threat in this arc doesn't feel nearly as good as Worlds Collide. I'll admit it. Worlds Collide was my first Archie Sonic arc (I knew of the comics but I didn't start getting them until 2012 with Worlds Collide) but it felt like there was a great plot there. A great threat. Eggman and Wily managed to get all of Sonic's friends and turn them into robot masters. 

 

That's something you wouldn't expect. Sega almost never allow any of this kind of stuff and here we were, with this happening, Sonic's friends all being turned into what was Capcom's robot masters. It was a really cool concept. On top of the fact that Eggman and Wily's plan was clearly laid out and clearly smart. It felt like these two minds were both needed to come up with such a brilliant plan that required both heroes to save the day. 

 

But in Worlds Unite, they try to do silly things like killing off Team Dark when it's obvious that Sega wouldn't allow some of their most popular characters to be killed off, and it's easy to tell they won't be killed off for real.

 

Between stuff like using Sonic's friends to mess with Sonic's head, to putting their designs together in order to create new traps for the heroes and time cloning a robot master army, it felt like a legitimate threat. It felt like there was an actual plot behind the story, and a good reason why they needed both series together. 

 

Here, it feels like Sigma's plan isn't as good as the original. There's no build up to his villain role except a small picture of Orbot infected with the Sigma virus, and then Sigma's plans is basically ''Oh, I'm just gonna take over multiple worlds with some robots''. Um alright. Considering this is exactly what Eggman and Wily have been doing up to now, plus the fact that he couldn't do anything when X was after him, I don't see the need for Sonic, Mega Man, X, and Sticks, plus a massive amount of Sega/Capcom worlds when he isn't as big a threat.

 

It felt like Worlds Collide had a focus. It had a plot. It had substance and a reason. Sonic & Mega Man had a clear motive for a team up and it had a ton of character development between Sonic & Mega Man bouncing off each other and becoming friends more and more while Eggman and Wily slowly became more selfish and only caring about themselves.

 

That's one of the biggest issues, and it's one I knew would be there as soon as we got the announcement of the Sega/Capcom worlds as well as 12 issues for the crossover. Worlds Collide featured our four main heroes (Sonic, Mega Man, Tails, and Rush) all interacting with each other, talking with each other and bouncing off each other. We got a ton of great character moments in Worlds Collide as well, between Dr.Light's attempt to convince Wily and Eggman to stop their plans, to the Chaotix trying to convince Proto Man to trade Vector his scarf and overall it did a great job to balance the story and characters with the fan service.

 

Worlds Unite on the other hand is so unbelievably overblown that we get none of this. We're 6 issues in between the main comics and the Battles issues, and we are only out of the set up phase. As a point of reference, the original arc only took two issues to set up. The characters feel like they have absolutely no time to interact and bounce off each other because Ian/Archie are too busy trying to shove them into supposed big epic battles and jokes that we don't actually get many good moments, apart from the rare Boom comparison joke from Sticks or the funny reference to Worlds Collide such as Eggman lying to Wily. 

[YoshiAngemon]

SSF1991, on 07 Jul 2015 - 6:03 PM, said:

That was perhaps the number one thing I was looking forward to in the crossover. The Boom heroes meeting the main series Sonic cast. Hell if Worlds Unite was Mega Man, X, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Sonic Boom that would've been much better than the clusterfuck that I feel has been going on. And the writing could have the potential to be brilliant if done correctly.

 

But instead of that only Sticks shows up to "represent" Boom and, other than finding the other SEGA/Capcom characters (something that really should've been done much earlier in the plot anyway), she has barely done anything. In fact instead of the writing potential of the rest of the Boom heroes we get Comedy Chimp and Fastidious Beaver instead because...why? In fact they've been less useful than Sticks! On the plus side some of the jokes, such as her "sports tape" discussion with main series Sonic, were golden. The potential was there and that's what disappoints me most of all.

 

The more I think about it the more this crossover just hasn't been as good as Worlds Collide.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I think what really makes WU rather lacking is that we figure it was gonna be somewhat of a clusterfuck. At least, that's my feeling.

There have been some upsides, such as the D6 being somewhat more threatening than they were in Lost Worlds and Gemerl finally making an appearance, but other than that I'm just here for the action than the story as opposed to both before WU.

[Sonictrainer]

Originally, I thought that the villains from each world across the 12 worlds would join forces.

 

I wasn't expecting Sigma to be our main bad guy.

[juliejo2001]

Someone over at the SEGA Foruns has a crazy idea that Sticks will stick around for a while after the main comics AFTER Worlds Unite Ends, and the Solicits don't mention her in any way, so he thinks that Archie Comics is gonna keep it a surprise that Sticks is joining the main cast, because she would be forced to FORGET the memories of meeting the Archie Sonic, should she leave. Sticks is on the cover of the Final Issue of Sonic Boom, that can justify her being in the series.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Is it that SpaceColonyBark guy? He always comes up with crazy theories.

[biznizz]

I feel as if I'm playing devil's advocate in saying that I am not hating WU as much as others. Sure, it's not as good as WC (so far, final judgment when it finally wraps), but I can't bring myself to fully dislike it.

 

If anything, I'm just kinda... sad about it.

 

And a lot of it is because of just how much it seemed that Kaminski unwittingly sabotaged this from the get-go before jumping ship over to DC.

 

I don't know who's going to be the penciler for the third act, but I kinda dug Schoening's art in Act 1, and despite the stiffness of Huang's art so far in Act 2, I feel it could be worse. But bringing in these "guest" artists from other companies has so far hurt the crossover than enhance it.

 

Some of the plot beats, whether it made it to page or not, are seeming to ambitious for the crossover's own good. People, I think, would have survived Sticks being the only Boom cast member (most assumed such due to the marketing), and C.C. and F.B. would have been better off cut so Team Dark DIDN'T have to die to induce stakes, or even allow a slightly better flow to the story. Unless those two wind up saving the day similar to Bebop & Rocksteady in Turtles Forever, then they are completely surperflous. Scratch that, even if that scenario DOES happen, that might be apt to piss people off more.

 

We are currently half way through Act 2, yet none of the other SEGA & Capcom characters are here, which seems too late, that perhaps they would've been better off starting to show up at the end of Act 1.

 

And even after the crossover, you got some real depressing stuff to look forward to. Sure, WC ended with the old Sonic continuity getting rebooted, but the argument can be made that has given the books a new breath of fresh air.

 

After Unite, we got Boom getting cancelled, Mega Man going on a (most likely indefinite) hiatus which is a shame for both the Classic and X fans, and only StH & Universe seem to have a light at the end of the tunnel with the Unleashed adaptation getting back on track, and the Silver Age sounding interesting so far.

 

I think... to put it as a metaphor, if WC was Resident Evil 4, then WU is feeling like Resident Evil 5, in danger of turning out as Resident Evil 6. It's just... kinda sad.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I hope the ending involves a second genesis wave that restores the old universe, just to fuck with people

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I hope the ending involves a second genesis wave that restores the old universe, just to fuck with people

[Salamander]

Speaking as a non-reader, the vibe I get from Worlds Unite is that Ian Flynn was put in a difficult position.  Sega mandates pretty fatally undermine the Boom element of the crossover, but on top of that it might be more that WU was more something he was told to do rather than actively wanting to do, especially at this point in time.  I could believe that Worlds Collide was something he'd been pushing for personally, but the fact that Worlds Unite doesn't seem to have such a strong core gives me the impression it's not something he had pre-planned.

[Your Vest Friend]

And part 7 was blah as well. Just some things I noticed specifically;

-Sticks' interrogation scene has a bit of a reference/dig at Sonic X. "Huh...Sonic X...nah, it'd never last past three seasons".

-So now we know Chun-Li is calling around for backup after this. Probably will be seen next part.

-You know that conflict you saw in the preview pages with the controlled Mega Man heroes? It only lasts a page after that (because there's two pages focused on the Deadly Six that doesn't serve a purpose).

-Also you know how the solicits played up some Eggman/Wily planning? They're only in the issue for four panels, and only to fire the weapon to end the combat.

-It does get that armour off the Deadly Six...but then they collapse while being threatened.

-Then there's three pages of pretty much nothing but talk of planning, although they do bring up Sticks' absence.

-Sigma executes the next phase of his plan...and why is his mecha suit fashioned after Zavok? There is no reason for it, Eggman and Wily combined designs before because it was a joint effort, Zavok was your pawn!

-Then it finishes off with a double spread of all the maverick bosses Sigma summoned ala the robot master double page in WC...except this one doesn't feel as fun because none of the bosses are interacting, and with the heroes not in the picture there's no sense of grandeur.

-Bloody Wheel and Sting's placement though.

Ehhhhh.

Also for some reason FP had Archie #1 in even though they never stock the Archie comics. This is what they've been hyping? It's a disjointed mess, couldn't follow what was going on, which is bad when it's meant to be the first issue.

PS Bettchie is an awful ship name, comic.

[Toby]

Maybe it's being written this way so that it'll be really unpopular, and Ian won't be editorially forced to write another stupid Sonic/Mega Man crossover?

[Ryannumber1gamer]

If you want to know how bad the writing is, Ian already confirmed when Issue 4 came out on Bumbleking that Team Dark wasn't dead, Sega would never allow that, and they only included it to raise stakes.

[Big Panda]

Sticks wh...what's wrong with yo...Sticks, your skull should not be making that...Sticks, STICKS

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Sticks wh...what's wrong with yo...Sticks, your skull should not be making that...Sticks, STICKS

 

And the art has officially hit lackluster.

[Big Panda]

And the art has officially hit lackluster.

Well...

[Mauro Fonseca]

lots of detail. still nowhere as neat as when they did that in the first crossover, since they're all just vaguely posing in "cool" poses

[Pompadour]

I think many of the "cool" poses are actually heavily based off of official art too, so some of them really look a bit out of place. I think they did fine though, especially having to fit all those characters on one page.

Just happy to see my fave mavericks in the comic though (Spike Rosered and Overdrive Ostrich. Both conveniently in the same spot too!)

Skiver looks a little unwell though, and Burn Dinorex without his yellow eyebrows and black eyelids is the goofiest thing ever. It kinda makes me hope there are more errors that I just can't see yet, because both guys look hilarious

The art isn't bugging me too much from the previews and panel scans i've seen, honestly. It's not great, but not a lot of moments where I thought "WOW that's awful". Whoever's penciling seems to like drawing things rounded off and blobby, especially with the sonic characters. Who is this artist again?

[Spin Attaxx]

Something I'm noticing:

 

All the X1 Mavericks are using their Maverick Hunter X designs... except Launch Octopus.

 

Also the Mavericks don't look as cool in a group shot as the Robot Masters do, especially with how it's set up here. Feels more like a collage of pics derived from official art (especially evident with the X Hunters, Wire Sponge, Armored Armadillo and Morph Moth among others) than an original piece depicting an energetic and epic charge of a thousand super soldiers.

[Adamis]

Sticks wh...what's wrong with yo...Sticks, your skull should not be making that...Sticks, STICKS

 

Even I can draw better than that :/

[Jason Berry]

Sticks wh...what's wrong with yo...Sticks, your skull should not be making that...Sticks, STICKS

 

 

Stick is doing her Greta Garbo imitation. "I want to be alone!"

[Dantemustdie00]

Yeah...the art does kinda ruin the mood for me, but that spread page of the Mavericks is just so delicious through.