Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[antyep]

I know I was one of the first to say I'd like the Freedom Fighters concept to go, but to be clear, I personally don't think it's that big a deal. I'm more concerned about bigger issues which I thought that getting rid of the FF's concept might help solve, like the Freedom Fighter characters getting more clearly distinct, interesting characterization and not overtaking the game characters in focus. But both of those can definitely be solved without ditching the team concept. The first can be solved by improving the writing in that area and separating the characters more often, and the latter can be solved without ruining things by fans of those characters by simply making some arcs more focused on game characters and others more focused on FF's (Champions and many SU arcs are clear examples of the former). Even I, someone who's more interested in the game guys, would still like some more FF-heavy arcs every once in a while, as it's nice to have some variety and there are certainly things I like about them. Plus, they're just a part of the comic, and thus a part of, well, Sonic. I don't really want to see them be marginalized to an excessive degree. I just want, well, balance. And that's certainly achievable under the current "system".

If getting rid of the Freedom Fighters concept really would create a lot of consternation for a lot of people, I wouldn't go for it - at least not now. If they were going to implement it, it might be better to wait until the rebooted 'verse is just a little older, and in the meantime start gradually showing the Freedom Fighters apart more often and establishing a bit more independence for the members, and even maybe showing them dividing up into smaller teams, so it doesn't come "all at once".

Or maybe, like I said, bring a new fresh start, but actually maybe show the gang becoming Freedom Fighters..

 

The other reason I prefer the comics take on things is the entire Eggman empire. In the games, this is a force headed entirely by one man. That's inconsequential as fuck, considering what one hedgehog can do to all of his robots (and it's not like Sonic is the only capable person). The comic books, though? This is one fat fucking bastard. He forces his troops into slavery by threats, overbearing machines and possible bombs in the chest cavity (is that still a thing?). Having an Egg boss to fight at the end of a level rather than just Eggman in whatever next machine would add so much variety, because these are other people. There could be moral dilemmas about this shit. Because GUN has some corruption, the Kingdom of Acorn is dysfunctional, and these people might not be able to leave and join the resistance because of the controlling power, but also because they might think the other option is worse. You'd wonder who is really in the right or wrong because all of these people have to be fighting Sonic for some reason. Not everyone here is evil, they're just trying to survive. In the games, it's just robots. Robots and nothing else. In the comics, the Eggman empire is a god damned EMPIRE.

This is essentially what I love about the comics and WHY I want the Freedom Fighters to stay, but it's less the title and what it means. Eggman is extremely powerful here (probably was toned down a lot post-reboot, but he still has a lot of power). The point is that Eggman has a large share of the world and it's needed to have a force to fight against him. The group could be named anything or not, it's the Eggman Empire being so powerful that I love, the FF are just the consequence of that concept's existence, villain causes hero.

 

Otherwise, it's just a bunch of random adventures about Sonic and Eggman is the main villain, I guess -- apparently, for some reason, which is what the games are, and... they don't interest me.

As I read these, I think I recall Eggman somewhat becoming this in the old world before the Pendering. If the Pendering didn't happen, we probably could've seen what we see in the new world built up in the old world.. What I would've like to see in the new world is maybe events from Colors and maybe Lost World could've been a diversion for Sonic (but a bonus way to take over the world), while his real plan was to round up Egg Bosses to create a TRUE Eggman Empire, which then overwhelmed the world more than Sonic could handle. Thus we then see Sonic, along with Tails and Amy, join forces with Sally and crew to create the Freedom Fighters. This would not only show their world how important the Freedom Fighters are, but also to new readers too. It just seem like the concept of the Freedom Fighters is only based on the old, which has been forced to be tossed aside because of the Pendering. We barely seen how the Freedom Fighters were formed in the new world, besides small clips from Sonic Origins. If SEGA wasn't so protective of their own characters be given origins, (and besides Archie's budget problem) we probably would've got a Sonic Origins series or something.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Well the Egg bosses are essentially just the replacement for the grandmasters of the dark egg legion anyway, so it's not really that different anyway.

And yes, I'm bothered by the lack of origins for characters, as well as relatives. I would not, however, have a problem if they were to design and write characters and backstories themselves, as there's no fucking reason to leave it so ambiguous, but they just sit on all these characters that have no relatives and refuse to let the comic get a little deeper with it's story. I understand keeping it closer to the games, Sega. I really do. But then have it in the fucking games, too. This is fucking Miyamoto Syndrome, where you refuse to let things get more complicated because you're old, and back in your day, these gosh-dang vidya game charicters didn't need backstorehs, and we were all about tah gameplay, like there's any reason whatsoever that a game or comic can't have good gameplay and execution AND a good, complex story to back it up. 

Unfortunately, I have no idea what we, or anyone can do to make a change. I have no idea who controls what mandates are in place, or how they could be changed.

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

I really, really don't mind the fact that the Sonic characters don't have backstories in the games...in fact, I like it that way. If they tried, it would probably end up being pretty dumb anyway =P

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Then LET THE FUCKING COMIC GUYS WRITE THE BACKSTORY.

Like, if I'm not going to work at a homeless shelter tomorrow, I shouldn't try to stop the people who are, that are the same people that made an award-winning movie about the events of my life.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Eh, I'm not gonna lie and say that I hated the characters having backstories. I loved seeing them having a beginning that built up into how they are in the present.

But leaving it ambiguous isn't a dealbreaker to me. Then again, I've always been one to believe that Sonic's backstory started in Sonic 1, so take that how you will.

 

I know. I'm saying I want the games and comics to be the same universe. That way, we cut the amount of continuity bullshit down to 2 canons (Prime and Boom), we have a more developed main canon between the comics and the games, and the Boomiverse can serve as where we can experiment with new and weird story elements before forcing them into the main series and shitting the place up then having to work with retcons and the like (lookin' at you, black arms). Because honestly, the comics have the best handle on what Sonic's world is. A place with over-the-top world geometry and locations, humans and anthros living together with not much weirdness between, a different, lower form of animals like the flickies (what do they call them? Mobinis?), a fucked up future with a futuristic hedgehog trying to save it, and one madman trying to disrupt everything and bend it to his will. I've never quite understood what part of the series' worldbuilding is done by who, but the games suck ass at it, with this whole "two worlds" thing.

Honestly, I actually prefer the games and comics separate but similar as a sort of alternate continuity. There's nothing wrong with having multiple cannons, just the way you handle them. It's ironically the people in charge of the games that have a wonky handle of their own work due to the "two worlds" while Archie and Boom are more consistent within themselves.

Now I wouldn't mind their general handling of the world be the same, with both the comics and the games being a place with over the top geometry and locations, humans and anthros together without any weirdness, and lower forms of animals, and all that with a madman trying to disrupt and control everything. If that's all you meant, then I agree.

But other than that, while the comics may have the best handle of Sonic's world, it does help to be distinct.

 

EDIT - also, read the World's Unite finale. Epic action, anticlimactic ending a la Sonic 06 for sure. The action and other characters are the only good thing about it, while the narrative, despite being competent, is kinda lame in structure and pacing. Especially that Sonic 06 twist they pulled - it both manages to make sense while almost being a deus ex machina that basically meant the entire plot could be avoided from the start and wasted the effort. Definitely gonna be one of Ian's poorer works like the Iron Dominion and House of Cards if you ask me.

Edited August 25, 2015 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Honestly, I actually prefer the games and comics separate but similar as a sort of alternate continuity. There's nothing wrong with having multiple cannons, just the way you handle them. It's ironically the people in charge of the games that have a wonky handle of their own work due to the "two worlds" while Archie and Boom are more consistent within themselves.

Now I wouldn't mind their general handling of the world be the same, with both the comics and the games being a place with over the top geometry and locations, humans and anthros together without any weirdness, and lower forms of animals, and all that with a madman trying to disrupt and control everything. If that's all you meant, then I agree.

But other than that, while the comics may have the best handle of Sonic's world, it does help to be distinct.

Well again, the only thing keeping them from being in the same canon would be the Egg army, and them saying "yeah, it's the same universe". I don't think that any story elements in the games have to be changed at all. 

[Celestia]

What Shaddy is suggesting is an Extended Universe type thing, like Doctor Who or Star Wars. They're set in the same universe as the main canon, but they have a ton of original characters, concepts, etc. that are (almost*) never referenced elsewhere. But fans are free to interpret them as canon, or pick and choose depending on what makes sense and doesn't contradict other information (for example, game Sonic seems to be more of a traveller compared to his Archie incarnation...though that hasn't really been determined in the new Archie continuity yet).

Basically, fans of the Archie-only stuff could imagine those characters and concepts existing somewhere off-screen in the game 'verse, but if you don't care for them and/or prefer they not be in the games, well, they'll never come up anyway. I mean, technically you could still probably do that, but it isn't really supported by the comic at all since, well...they literally went right into an Unleashed adaptation that changed up quite a few things.

So yeah, I would've liked to see them do something like that, but I'm fine with what we got since it's a lot simpler to just go with an alternate continuity. You could argue that keeping to a separate continuity also allows for more freedom, but personally I...don't think SEGA would "mandate the comic more" if it was based more on the games? Like, for example, if they didn't want the comic to use retired characters like Nack or whoever, I don't think it would matter to them whether or not it's set in the game universe...but I could be wrong about that, who knows.

*Doctor Who recently referenced some Eighth Doctor EU material in a short released for the 50th anniversary, for example, but as far as I know that's pretty much it aside from the occasional nod here and there, and the occasional episode that is based on / adapts a story seen in EU material, etc.

Edited August 25, 2015 by Celestia

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I'm not sure I'd consider it an extended universe since the games came first, I mostly just want a merged canon between two universes. CSS was correct in that having multiple universes is fine if it's handled right, but my point is that this series doesn't handle it right. Because, as it stands, there's a total of six universes in the series so far. The prime zone, the sol zone, the main and sol verses of the games, and the two mirror worlds of sonic boom(kinda cheap since it was one episode and will never be brought up again, but still). But since you have alternate versions of the first two, which are already alternate versions of each other, having them as separate canons of nearly identical universes seems redundant (not to mention, RoL and SC do the same thing, but thankfully their comics are practically canon with the universe). If we were merging Archie's canon in with the games, we wouldn't be subtracting things like making a games-only comic would be. And I'm not sure if I'd say that none of the Archie elements appear, just that they aren't integral to the story of each game. Like, say there's an extra that you can collect as Sonic at one point gets you a message from Nicole, having hacked into the metropolis database, warning you about what Eggman's added to the new metal Sonic, which you then fight as a boss. That's not a big, important moment, and you could miss it, but it'd be a nice touch. And again, having someone other than Eggman to fight at the end of each zone with a personality and something to say to the main characters would also be a nice addition. It's all about the little, more subtle things.

 

Plus, we already sort of have an extended universe, in the form of, well, Sonic Universe. I know that it plays into the main plot a lot, but it's pretty similar nonetheless.

[Your Vest Friend]

The concept art of the Deadly Six's armors looks better than the actual armor. I wonder why they didn't use them.

According to the picture description where he posted them, SEGA wanted smaller, more uniform designs. 

[Salamander]

Having an Egg boss to fight at the end of a level rather than just Eggman in whatever next machine would add so much variety, because these are other people. There could be moral dilemmas about this shit.

I think it's also significant that having Eggman as the boss of every level means that your villain has a phenomenally high failure rate.  He has an even worse record than Dr. Wily and Dracula, who at least only get trounced once per game.  In fairness, recent Sonic games have indeed been keeping him in reserve a bit more.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I think it's also significant that having Eggman as the boss of every level means that your villain has a phenomenally high failure rate.  He has an even worse record than Dr. Wily and Dracula, who at least only get trounced once per game.  In fairness, recent Sonic games have indeed been keeping him in reserve a bit more.

Well, to be fair, it also gives an impression that Eggman doesn't back down nearly as easily, and is far more persistent. If you get your current robot blown up every time you come across your enemy, and just keep going, you must be stubborn as shit not to have had a nervous breakdown yet.

 

Strangely enough, though, comic book Eggman has gone through just that.

[Sonictrainer]

The concept art of the Deadly Six's armors looks better than the actual armor. I wonder why they didn't use them.

Master Zik's armor looks silly though.

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

I really want the Sega and Archie Sonic universes to stay separate, personally. It would just make things more complicated than they need to be. Anyway, I rather like the relative simplicity of the Sega Sonic universe (ignoring the recent "two worlds" revelation, I suppose).

And personally, while I don't mind the games characters having backstories and families in the comics, at the same time, I don't feel like it's really necessary. The characters work just fine without them.

[King Scoopa Koopa]

Well, to be fair, it also gives an impression that Eggman doesn't back down nearly as easily, and is far more persistent. If you get your current robot blown up every time you come across your enemy, and just keep going, you must be stubborn as shit not to have had a nervous breakdown yet.

 

Strangely enough, though, comic book Eggman has gone through just that.

No he didn't. ???

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Yeah, he did. StH #200 has Eggman reduced to a drooling, screaming mess of a man. It takes most of the iron dominion arc for him to return to sanity

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I'm not sure I'd consider it an extended universe since the games came first, I mostly just want a merged canon between two universes. CSS was correct in that having multiple universes is fine if it's handled right, but my point is that this series doesn't handle it right. Because, as it stands, there's a total of six universes in the series so far. The prime zone, the sol zone, the main and sol verses of the games, and the two mirror worlds of sonic boom(kinda cheap since it was one episode and will never be brought up again, but still). But since you have alternate versions of the first two, which are already alternate versions of each other, having them as separate canons of nearly identical universes seems redundant (not to mention, RoL and SC do the same thing, but thankfully their comics are practically canon with the universe). If we were merging Archie's canon in with the games, we wouldn't be subtracting things like making a games-only comic would be. And I'm not sure if I'd say that none of the Archie elements appear, just that they aren't integral to the story of each game. Like, say there's an extra that you can collect as Sonic at one point gets you a message from Nicole, having hacked into the metropolis database, warning you about what Eggman's added to the new metal Sonic, which you then fight as a boss. That's not a big, important moment, and you could miss it, but it'd be a nice touch. And again, having someone other than Eggman to fight at the end of each zone with a personality and something to say to the main characters would also be a nice addition. It's all about the little, more subtle things.

Gonna have to be honest - that sounds a bit of a headache in trying to balance and organize with a merged canon. Mainly because Archie isn't as inconsistent as the games are. You may not be subtracting anything, but you'd have quite a tangle to unravel if you do something like that given how things are. I mean, put it this way: if you say this series doesn't handle alternate universes right, and also consider it doesn't handle it's primary universe right, merging them wouldn't exactly be the best way to do things.

I wouldn't say the series doesn't handle it right tho - ironically everything except the games handles themselves rather consistently. In fact, the games being messy themselves is one of the strongest reasons I'd say keep them separate.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Gonna have to be honest - that sounds a bit of a headache in trying to balance and organize with a merged canon. Mainly because Archie isn't as inconsistent as the games are. You may not be subtracting anything, but you'd have quite a tangle to unravel if you do something like that given how things are. I mean, put it this way: if you say this series doesn't handle alternate universes right, and also consider it doesn't handle it's primary universe right, merging them wouldn't exactly be the best way to do things.

I wouldn't say the series doesn't handle it right tho - ironically everything except the games handles themselves rather consistently. In fact, the games being messy themselves is one of the strongest reasons I'd say keep them separate.

I'm not sure what the complication would be. There's not many elements of the important, canon games that aren't in the comics. It would be as simple as saying "all the comics happened off-screen in the comics except unleashed which isn't canon now". Now, in terms of making new games, the writers would have to deal with not making things that contradict the comics, but that would hardly be a problem with the direction the current games have taken. Like, even if they changed nothing, I'd be happier if they just said "yeah the comics are canon".

Like, the games (not unleashed) are already canon to the comics, but there's nothing to say the comics can't or shouldn't be canon to the games -- they just won't let them be.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I'm not sure what the complication would be. There's not many elements of the important, canon games that aren't in the comics. It would be as simple as saying "all the comics happened off-screen in the comics except unleashed which isn't canon now". Now, in terms of making new games, the writers would have to deal with not making things that contradict the comics, but that would hardly be a problem with the direction the current games have taken. Like, even if they changed nothing, I'd be happier if they just said "yeah the comics are canon".

Like, the games (not unleashed) are already canon to the comics, but there's nothing to say the comics can't or shouldn't be canon to the games -- they just won't let them be.

But that's exactly where the complication lies, mainly because of how much bigger the cast and events are in the comics and also because of how interconnected everything in the comics are compared to the looser connections of the games. And that's on top of the game writers having to either avoid mentioning the comic exclusive characters or throw in a reference if you don't want to contradict the comics, which if someone new to the comics decided to go "hey, I'm gonna read the comics" and picked up an issue, regardless of how you go about it they'd likely end up asking a lot of questions wondering where the hell these other characters were when shit hit the fan. And that's something that would be further complicated when the writer for the games and the writer for the comics aren't exactly working together and end up doing something contradicting as a result.

Many fans already try to make connections and sense to the game canon alone and question when things seem off, but if you bridged the comic along with it then that only brings even more questions and hardly any answers. Questions such as: 

• where were the Freedom Fighters when the ARK was falling to Earth? And if they were still on Earth, why weren't they in space helping Sonic given how dangerous things were up there? Or even giving him information to help?; 
• where were they when Chaos destroyed Station Square? Sonic could have definitely used the extra help to stop Eggman and Chaos from wreaking havoc.
• Where were the Freedom Fighters, GUN, anyone else other than Team Sonic, Rose, Chaotix, and Dark when Eggman was readying the biggest fleet he's ever constructed and flying it into the stratosphere? No way Eggman could keep that fleet a secret from all of them after launching it, and all these teams could have used support.
• Or an even bigger one, where were all these characters when the Black Arms invaded? This kinda global catastrophe isn't something they would go out unmentioned or uninvolved in.

We already do this much just for game characters, so imagine how much confusion would go around if they said the comics were canon and fans wanted to see how any of the events and actions matched up? This is actually one of the comic's strong points - making sense of what each character was doing around the world when all this happened. But this interconnection impacts the setting too much to just be in the background, which is where complications would arise if you simply say "the comics are canon" because you'd have to explain how it is with all these other characters and events running in tandem with each other or else it can risk falling apart with the audience getting involved, something that is necessary when working with such a narrative.

And this isn't getting into the elements from the cartoons that have been adapted into the comics. Leaving them separate avoids this issue entirely, because then they can make connections in just the bubble of comics and the bubble of the games instead of trying to make sense of how both the games and the comics tie into each other. And that's in addition to avoiding questions or actions that would either go unanswered or seem illogical to an audience.

Edited August 26, 2015 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Well yeah, but then I mean, the games are still canon to the comics. That means there's just as much confusion to the things you're pointing out there, right? And, if you were wondering this and that about each game, couldn't the general idea be "read the comics for extra information and stories"?

I mean, it's not as if Sonic has an army in the games. At a certain point, can't we say that some games happened before the formation of the FFs and others happened as solo missions (ie. colors and the like)? The comics haven't written over their previous story at all yet, and there's nothing that actually tells when and how the group was formed. And the black arms example isn't the best, because you could totally say Sonic was present, because he did fucking nothing plot relevant in Shadow the hedgehog. Heck, that could be the scenario that Sonic met the Freedom fighters. And then at some point we have the wisps as a solo mission, and then we've got the Unleashed saga. The main series, rush, and advance seem to be the only games that really matter, and you could just staple that one episode of AoStH as canon between Sonic 1 and 2.

Like, I'm not saying merging the two wouldn't require effort, it's just that there's no reason to have all this stuff separating two canons that are so similar.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Well yeah, but then I mean, the games are still canon to the comics. That means there's just as much confusion to the things you're pointing out there, right? And, if you were wondering this and that about each game, couldn't the general idea be "read the comics for extra information and stories"?

It's not that simple. There's a reason the games and comics are separate from each other despite being similar, as any comic references or lack of in the games builds questions to their whereabouts between the two. That Black Arms example was the biggest highlight of it, Sonic may not have done much plot relevant, but he was there or mentioned and reference throughout that game, as were every other character involved. It also can't be where Sonic met the Freedom Fighters, because it has been firmly established in the comics that Sonic fought with and joined them when they were at a young, unspecified age in the Comic Origins (which for one, predates SA2 which you'd need to reach before the Black Arms arrived), and if you claim he met them during the Black Arms invasion then you just contradicted that establishment and ran right into the conundrum I'm pointing out now that you wouldn't have if you kept them separate. And that's on top of making another question of where Shadow was during the whole thing prior to the Freedom Fighters had formed during the invasion.

While the games are canon to the comics, the comics tend to skirt around it by showing and mentioning brief references that bridge them, as doing it this way allows them not to go into where characters like the Freedom Fighters were when the game events happened so as to avoid any questions that can pop up. However, working with it the other way around, reading the comics for more info on the games, emphasizes those questions as to where those other characters were as the games don't exactly do that. This on top of the fact that the Unleashed saga is happening completely different as it is from the games further shatters that connection from working even more, because by that point you can't use the comics for more info on the games due to its intentional differences that diverge them from each other which would then ruin the merge of the comics and the games being one canon together.

I mean, look at all this complicated stuff I'm bringing to your attention as it is just for suggesting the idea of merging the comics and the games. Now imagine even more and more questions being asked to make sense for each major plot event, character, or device and how you'd answer them, and you'd see where I'm coming from over how that would be a bigger problem than you'd think. And if you brush them off so easily, then you'd run into another question: why bother connecting the canons into one if you weren't going to explain the connections being asked about?

You keep them separate, you avoid all of this and only have to worry about questions within their own respective canons which are much easier to answer. And that's why there's a reason keeping these two separate despite them being similar.

Edited August 26, 2015 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Salamander]

Much though I admire the thought, it's not really possible to write interstitial stories for an ongoing and long-running series.  It would be almost impossible to avoid introducing elements that might end up conflicting with later material.  Let's remember that the games can barely even remain canon to each other.

[Your Vest Friend]

My opinion is that making the games adhere to comic canon doesn't make sense from both a narrative standpoint and a business standpoint (40k audience vs 400-500k audience for even the worse-selling games).

 

My other opinion is that these are spoilers for Sonic Universe #79 that I pasted from Bumbleking although it is my own writing.

 

-The pre-comic summary of the situation has concept art of the Council I think we've seen before, but also of Onyx City. Reminds me of the Kron Colony in some ways.

-The bird in the first panel of page 4 reminds me of ***** Duck Dexter Bagstille from Sonic the Comic, only green and with less feather tuft things. That's not a spoiler, just something I noticed.
-Anyways, after the preview, Silver makes it to his hideaway. It's a canopy using a tree and concrete remnants as the structure, with a couch, a box and a stone fire circle thing. He goes to practice his psychic abilities on his rubbish tip (not without talking to himself, using his hand as a puppet, first) before he is disturbed by a voice.
-This voice belongs to a man who was using his Double-Down-Ing Dowsing Rods(tm) to scan his 'psychical' energy. He is impressed by Silver's power and is convinced that he is who is needed.
-The man introduces himself as Professor Von Schlemmer, but Silver is concerned about him because he's from the science centre, which apparently has various stories surrounding it. Schlemmer tries to explain that Silver's powers might be able to help in countering the Genesis Portals before...well, they get a live demonstration of what one is.
-The portal is a purplish void tunnel with black grabby hands everywhere (where were these in the Worlds Unite portals??). Silver's able to shake them off, but Schlemmer becomes trapped. Silver uses his psychic powers to get them off, fly them out of the portal and seal it up. This ability was previously unbeknownst to him.
-Schlemmer celebrates because he was proved right (explaining to Silver that his "psychic frequency reharmonised [the] dimensional fragments, healing [the] rift in space-time), but he's still concerned because the tear was worse than he'd figured so they may not be able to seal them all before reality goes bye-bye. 
-Schlemmer wants to head to the science centre to see the Council, but Silver still doesn't want to. He further explains that people with powers that go there (like Silver) never leave the place. Schlemmer is having none of it, so he takes Silver by force. Literally. 
-Meanwhile, the Council are looking at a screen. The tests are apparently going as planned and they want to focus on localising the portals, before moving onto the next phase. I should note that there's a verbal tic in that at least one of them will say "Yes" when the group is speaking. 
-Domino-Five (not an official name) points out that they have no idea what closed the portal, but the others write it off as an outlier in the tests and isn't of concern. Domino-Five is left staring, and as he walks off we see what he's looking at; a gate that looks exactly like the Boss Gates from Generations. 

-A single point of interest in the letters page; There are no immediate plans for Mephiles, Eggman Nega or Blaze. 
-Off-panel is about Schlemmer's ridiculous accent [Edit: FatPanda's pointed out that it's a pretty blatant Sonic the Comic reference].

Edited August 26, 2015 by VEDJ-F

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

Hang on, I thought they were not allowed to used Nega?

[Your Vest Friend]

 

Hidden Content

1. Ian hadn't asked in a long time so it was at the last check but that would have been years ago.

2. That's not a confirmation that he's allowed, it's just saying they don't have plans for him in the immediate future. They wouldn't have plans for characters like Scourge in the immediate future either

[King Scoopa Koopa]

Yeah, he did. StH #200 has Eggman reduced to a drooling, screaming mess of a man. It takes most of the iron dominion arc for him to return to sanity

Nope; didn't happen. It was all a dream, a hoax, an imaginary story... or maybe just another lifetime.