Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[MadmanRB]

Well it may help his case to be lead writer on Sonic again.

[SonicComicFanboy]

5 minutes ago, Chameleon94 said:

Since Ian already works on TMNT with IDW, does that increase the chances of him working on the new Sonic comic?

 Not sure.  They said they would be in talks with established favorites and newcomers alike so I would bet he will be on their Radar but he's not a shoe-in.

 

Though the TMNT book he worked on was the comic companion to the Nicktoon and not the main book.

 

Also John Gray does cover art for some of the Disney books so hopefull he's considered as well.

[KoDaiko]

23 minutes ago, MadmanRB said:

I wont get involved until the SatAM characters are grandfathered in.

I know modern sonic fans dont like the freedom fighters because they are not the mighty god that is Shadow who "is the bestest character! evvvvvvaaaar!"

I don't hate them, but I never grew up with them and they came from a westernized Sonic media that is different from what I like about Sonic. So it is hard to care. I understand people have much devotion to them, but it's hard to fully understand some people's claim of "The comic will fail unless FF is in! Without the FF, everything will be bland and boring!"

11 minutes ago, Speedi said:

But Sonic can't cry because he's supposed to be the big hero. Heroes don't cry it gives them a wider range of emotions that makes them more compelling as characters. Sonic's supposed to be one-dimensional and boring, that's what makes a good character, right?

I think there are various ways to show expression. Crying is the most obvious way to express sadness for example but some people don't cry. Yet they are not all one-dimensional because they have other ways to show expression, and the way they express or not express themselves tell who they are. Like how Sonic looks devastated, falls on his knees and slam his fist to the floor when Elise died in 06. He didn't cry, but he showed much emotion there.

[Speedi]

IDW is talking to "Creative fan favorites" which might have been a slight confirmation that at least some of the old team is coming back. But until we know who specifically it's hard to tell.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

23 minutes ago, Speedi said:

But Sonic can't cry because he's supposed to be the big hero. Heroes don't cry it gives them a wider range of emotions that makes them more compelling as characters. Sonic's supposed to be one-dimensional and boring, that's what makes a good character, right?

 

So glad Lost World did away with Generation's folly there.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Genuine question. You people arguing SEGA's "infamous" and that they ran the comic like a slave-owner with the mandates. Do you actually read more licensed comics? Are you aware of the restrictions in there?

 

Transformers is the exception, not the rule.

[SonicComicFanboy]

1 minute ago, The KKM said:

Genuine question. You people arguing SEGA's "infamous" and that they ran the comic like a slave-owner with the mandates. Do you actually read more licensed comics? Are you aware of the restrictions in there?

 

Transformers is the exception, not the rule.

Yep, read almost as many licensed comics as Superhero & indie books.  

 

Pretty sure IDW isn't sinking in unreasonable mandates towards TMNT, Star Trek, etc.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Have you considered they might be, we just don't know because they don't test them in the first place?

 

The whole reason we know of the SEGA mandates is 1. Ian running his mouth 2. the comic being so out-of-bounds that it crossed the line in nearly everything

There is no unreasonable mandate. There are exaggerated ghosts of SEGA mandates that are awful, but the actual mandates as we know them are anything but. There's no "Sonic can't cry" mandate, it's "Sonic can't bawl". They all boil down to "come on guys, depict the characters like they're meant to be". Is that such an unreasonable thing to ask? They didn't even demand stuff like "family members" be removed, the characters were allowed to remain, they just couldn't admit to relations to the game cast.

Hell, the fact Sonic was allowed to remain a Freedom Fighter and Eggman a Robo-Hitler and the like is if anything the proof in the pudding that SEGA was oddly lenient in mandates, since they never took the "make the characters act like the games" mandates to their full extent.

 

If IDW tried making a story where Picard absorbs the Enterprise reactor and becomes a God and also has 30 family members who look like him, I'd bet we'd see one of those dreaded mandates suddenly pop up going "no don't". But we won't, because unlike Archie writers, IDW won't be dumb enough to try in the first place.

[MadmanRB]

Well what is wrong with making the characters more human?

Giving them family, emotions and giving them a backstory?

 

Oh wait that is forbidden in Sega land, heaven forbid the characters have realism.

 

This is why i hate segasonic, its so sterile of any rel characterizations, say what you will about Archie or boom but at least the characters have more than one trait to their personalities.

[Red Hot Jack]

2 minutes ago, MadmanRB said:

Well what is wrong with making the characters more human?

Giving them family, emotions and giving them a backstory?

 

Oh wait that is forbidden in Sega land, heaven forbid the characters have realism.

 

This is why i hate segasonic, its so sterile of any rel characterizations, say what you will about Archie or boom but at least the characters have more than one trait to their personalities.

Some of the characters do have established family members or ancestors: Knuckles, Shadow, Eggman and Cream. For some of them a family just doesn't fit IMO, Sonic for example. I would like one for Tails though.

[Mauro Fonseca]

But the characters aren't forbidden from having emotions. Eesh. That's what I mean by "the ghost of the mandates". The mandate says "Sonic can be sad but he's not the kind to cry his eyes out, tone that down" becomes "SEGA CHARACTERS CAN'T EMOTE DURR HURR" in the eyes of certain fans for some dumb reason. Even the infamous Yardley! panel that was edited still had Sonic tear up in the end.

[MadmanRB]

2 minutes ago, Chameleon94 said:

Some of the characters do have established family members or ancestors: Knuckles, Shadow, Eggman and Cream. For some of them a family just doesn't fit IMO, Sonic for example. I would like one for Tails though.

Well of course it cant work for Sonic, obviously heroes cannot have family that is nonsense as he obviously came from thin air!

[Diogenes]

3 minutes ago, MadmanRB said:

Well what is wrong with making the characters more human?

Giving them family, emotions and giving them a backstory?

Nothing, inherently, but Archie Sonic went so far off the path it hardly even seemed like a Sonic comic a lot of the time.

[MadmanRB]

1 minute ago, Diogenes said:

Nothing, inherently, but Archie Sonic went so far off the path it hardly even seemed like a Sonic comic a lot of the time.

Uh huh because clearly making Sonic have more than one emotional trait is against the law in at least 187 countries

[Mauro Fonseca]

Are you actually reading what's being posted or just running high on hyperbolic fumes?

[MadmanRB]

Being hyperbolic because I know how segasonic purists are like

[Dee Dude]

Me thinks Madman is trolling.

Anyway, what if the reason IDW Sonic is coming in 2018 because they're spending the rest of this year fighting through the mandates?

[MadmanRB]

2 minutes ago, Dee Dude said:

Me thinks Madman is trolling.

Anyway, what if the reason IDW Sonic is coming in 2018 because they're spending the rest of this year fighting through the mandates?

No I am being inquisitive, and sarcastic 

[SonicComicFanboy]

15 minutes ago, The KKM said:

Have you considered they might be, we just don't know because they don't test them in the first place?

 

The whole reason we know of the SEGA mandates is 1. Ian running his mouth 2. the comic being so out-of-bounds that it crossed the line in nearly everything

There is no unreasonable mandate. There are exaggerated ghosts of SEGA mandates that are awful, but the actual mandates as we know them are anything but. There's no "Sonic can't cry" mandate, it's "Sonic can't bawl". They all boil down to "come on guys, depict the characters like they're meant to be". Is that such an unreasonable thing to ask? They didn't even demand stuff like "family members" be removed, the characters were allowed to remain, they just couldn't admit to relations to the game cast.

Hell, the fact Sonic was allowed to remain a Freedom Fighter and Eggman a Robo-Hitler and the like is if anything the proof in the pudding that SEGA was oddly lenient in mandates, since they never took the "make the characters act like the games" mandates to their full extent.

 

If IDW tried making a story where Picard absorbs the Enterprise reactor and becomes a God and also has 30 family members who look like him, I'd bet we'd see one of those dreaded mandates suddenly pop up going "no don't". But we won't, because unlike Archie writers, IDW won't be dumb enough to try in the first place.

Actually pretty sure there was a storyline in the comics where Kirk almost got Godlike powers, think it was during the Q storyline, have to go back & reread it though just to be sure.

 

 

And IDW was able to make the modern version of Splinter & The Turtles the reincarnations of a Samurai and his children, which changes the orgions a bit.  And Raph is in a realationship with a Fox character named Alopex.  They temporarily killed off Donnie and had his brain in a robot body...

 

So yea I would say IDW is allowed to do more

stuff with the properties they work with compared to Sonic's latter years at Archie.

[Your Vest Friend]

They're launching in 2018 because it takes time to plan out the start of a comic and then solicit them and then do all the regular steps of making a comic. I mean, they haven't even got their creative team together yet.

[Mauro Fonseca]

"Almost got" is different from, say, what happened to Knuckles. I'm sure Archie and now IDW could easily run stories where Sonic "almost gets" God powers, so long as the status quo is respected in the end. Hell, they did- he got to rebuild reality what, twice or three times in recent years?

As for TMNT, the author of the franchise is literally working with them. Different circumstances. They certainly don't get that freedom with Dr. Who. Or with Disney. Or much with MLP. Or maybe they do, but we won't know because they don't try because they're not idiots like Penders was or trying to keep the heritage of idiots like the current Archie Staff did.

 

^{(EDIT: we know they don't with Disney because we know a good amount of backstage stuff there too)}

[ElectricAngel]

3 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

They're launching in 2018 because it takes time to plan out the start of a comic and then solicit them and then do all the regular steps of making a comic. I mean, they haven't even got their creative team together yet.

If I remember what Ian said, even the solicits and covers are made months before the actual pencils are done. So yeah it's all a lengthy process. Early 2018 likely means they'll start the issue scripts in the next month or so.

[SonicComicFanboy]

But no ones asking for a pendering and turning the characters into Gods. All anyone is suggesting is they keep the same granfathered in characters the post SGW Archie comics did.  Characters that SEGA owns.  It is by no means a ludicrious or unreasonable suggestion.

 

 

 No one wants the book to turn back into Heavy 90's scifi again, they just want to read a book with characters they know and love.

[MadmanRB]

1 minute ago, SonicComicFanboy said:

But no ones asking for a pendering and turning the characters into Gods. All anyone is suggesting is they keep the same granfathered in characters the post SGW Archie comics did.  Characters that SEGA owns.  It is by no means a ludicrious or unreasonable suggestion.

 

 

 No one wants the book to turn back into Heavy 90's scifi again, they just want to read a book with characters they know and love.

I kind of do

[Mauro Fonseca]

Then why complain of mandates? The mandates didn't affect any of those characters, beyond at most a basic "they're now irrelevant". If anything, they were oddly pleasant with those characters- how many other licensed franchises do you see where characters from an obscure irrelevant decades-old spinoff media are given as much attention, and in some cases more attention, as the characters from the current product being promoted?