Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[Sonictrainer]

53 minutes ago, Slashy said:

Why are we getting so many OCs right out the gate?

From Ian himself:

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With Tangle, there aren't a ton of female roles within the Sonic franchise. Off the top of your head, I always think of Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, and Shadow first. Beyond that, you've got Amy, who's somewhat active yet is all over the place. Rouge is competent but has that odd sex appeal for a cartoon bat. Cream is like a six-year-old who isn't supposed to get involved, so the singular kick-butt female character is Blaze, and she's awesome! But she has the universe problem of being from an entirely different dimension and you have to use the MacGuffins to bring her over and why she's making the trip and so on. So, let's have a character that can easily go on Sonic adventures and be cool.

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With Rough and Tumble, you need more villains than just the big bad. You need some small fry to mix things up, and I think they're going to fulfill that role. They're kind of nasty guys that are a lot of fun.

 

[Sean]

It's not unusual for spin-offs of existing properties to introduce new characters off the bat. It's a problem when those characters don't mesh well with the rest of the existing cast, like in the case of Sonic X and its humans, but IDW's OCs are made to deliberately team up with or face off against Sonic and company, which is no less than I'd expect. I'm still not sold on the comic, but I'm thinking these new guys will fit in well enough.

I think Ian is underselling Rouge's potential in that rundown though, which is weird 'cause I like how he writes her and Team Dark in general. Plus, I think her sex appeal can be downplayed if she's drawn with a less noticeable bust (which can go for the games as well), because her personality usually doesn't ooze with Catwoman-like flirtiness all the time.

[Shaddy Zaphod]

I'd honestly bill Rouge's chesticular issues as being too emphasized by her outfit rather than any artistic choices. You can get away with a lot more with characters just by giving them normal clothes. It's not like her design really says "spy" when looking at her, anyway, with the white and pink highlights and her bright skin and fur tones. At the very least I'd rather sacrifice costume design than anatomy when it comes to changing the way a character looks.

[Razule]

6 minutes ago, Shaddy the Zaphod said:

I'd honestly bill Rouge's chesticular issues as being too emphasized by her outfit rather than any artistic choices. You can get away with a lot more with characters just by giving them normal clothes. It's not like her design really says "spy" when looking at her, anyway, with the white and pink highlights and her bright skin and fur tones. At the very least I'd rather sacrifice costume design than anatomy when it comes to changing the way a character looks.

Maybe this would be a better design?

[Shaddy Zaphod]

Eh, it's still a skin-tight outfit with a heart strategically placed to say "LOOK AT THEM TITTIES". It blends a bit better, but that's about it.

[Kellan]

So, Rough and Tumble's designs kinda hit a personal pet peeve of mine: they look too ugly and villainous. I never liked the whole "ugly = evil" thing. I always thought that it sent the wrong kind of message, especially for a children's series, but that's just me.

Although, if they end up turning good, then that will make them avert the cliche, which will make me like their designs a lot more. I don't think that's very likely to happen, though.

[Cuz]

From Ian's Interview

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The reason I got into Sonic was because I was raised in a Genesis household, thank you very much. Because Genesis does what Nintendon't ... which is drop out of the console market.

[Eurisko]

I think Rough and Tumble look great. Their character descriptions do remind me of Bebop and Rocksteady from TMNT though but probably not as blatantly dumb.

[MetalSkulkBane]

6 hours ago, Slashy said:

Why are we getting so many OCs right out the gate?

Makes perfect sense to me. The comic has to move forward, not just wallow in the past.

Megaman got away with a tiny number of OCs because those were adaptations. If this book takes place after all the games, it makes sense to show something new.

Besides, 3 isn't that big number. I'm sure we'll have old favorites that most time anyway.

[Red Hot Jack]

About villains, I'm wondering if Ian were to introduce the Hard Boiled Heavies, do you think they would talk and get personalities? I mean, he did that with the robot masters in Mega Man and it was fantastic, so I would like it if Sega approves, which I have my doubts (eh).

And of course I'd love for Ian to write and improve the Deadly Six, not my favorites but still, I can see some potential.

[Salamander]

6 hours ago, Kellan said:

So, Rough and Tumble's designs kinda hit a personal pet peeve of mine: they look too ugly and villainous. I never liked the whole "ugly = evil" thing. I always thought that it sent the wrong kind of message, especially for a children's series, but that's just me.

Although, if they end up turning good, then that will make them avert the cliche, which will make me like their designs a lot more. I don't think that's very likely to happen, though.

I see where you're coming from, but I'm not certain that they're actually all that ugly in relation to other Sonic characters; if I picture them actually trying to look friendly and good-guy-ish, it's far from impossible.  I think they look evil here because they're actively trying to look menacing rather than trying to look more amiable.  It'll be interesting to see more of a range of poses from them in the comic itself.  I'll concede the point on the eyes, at least, though I'm actually pretty certain that Tumble has black eyes; that is, they're bruised and it's not out of the question for them to heal up if he keeps out of fights for a while.

[Swing]

The more such characters they create the more the less special they feel. Everyone in the Sonic world seems to be a action animal character. This is so boring.

[RedFox99]

12 minutes ago, Swing said:

The more such characters they create the more the less special they feel. Everyone in the Sonic world seems to be a action animal character. This is so boring.

Well, this is an action serious. They kind of have to make action characters. 

[Swing]

2 minutes ago, RedFox99 said:

Well, this is an action serious. They kind of have to make action characters. 

They all ready created more than 100 of them in the Archie comics alone. Don't you think that this will get a bit stale after a while. For me this Tangle and the skunks are just another Sonic OC. Nothing more. 

[Sgt Nate V]

on a side note someone on reddit stole my joke

 

 

[RedFox99]

24 minutes ago, Swing said:

They all ready created more than 100 of them in the Archie comics alone. Don't you think that this will get a bit stale after a while. For me this Tangle and the skunks are just another Sonic OC. Nothing more. 

Well, these are new comics so they have to make new characters. 

[Marco9966]

Tails was an "OC" by your logic!!

[dwitefry666]

Rough and Tumble's hair confuses me, i get it and i get it's acruate to skunks but I keep thinking Tumble's hair is his tail and missing Rumble's Mohawk (because of the Tails like hair tuft at the front that's actually just the front of the Mohawk) - I respect that this might be a problem with me and not with the designs . Otherwise I'm fine with them, they remind me of Fang and the Post-Reboot redesigns of the the Witchcarters and I mean that in a good way. 

Which is a point: Has anyone from Team IDW said what's going down re: pre-Adventure characters that Archie used/redesigned like Mighty, Ray, The Battle Birds, Wendy Witchcart & Crew and Team Hooligan? I mean Hooligan appeared in Sonic Mania so surely they at least are usable right?

Also: I like Big too. 

[MetalSkulkBane]

3 hours ago, Swing said:

The more such characters they create the more the less special they feel. Everyone in the Sonic world seems to be a action animal character. This is so boring.

Everyone important character in Marvel/DC Comics is action-oriented human. Almost every important character in Steven Universe is an action-oriented gem. I fail to see your point.

I mean, gimme some counterproposition? Do you think Reboot Archie would be better if one of Freedom Fighters wasn't able to fight?

[RedFox99]

Just now, MetalSkulkBane said:

Everyone important character in Marvel/DC Comics is action-oriented human. Almost every important character in Steven Universe is an action-oriented gem. I fail to see your point.

I mean, gimme some counterproposition? Do you think Reboot Archie would be better if one of Freedom Fighters wasn't able to fight?

I mean we had Cream for that and even then people didn't care too much about that.

[Salamander]

1 hour ago, dwitefry666 said:

Which is a point: Has anyone from Team IDW said what's going down re: pre-Adventure characters that Archie used/redesigned like Mighty, Ray, The Battle Birds, Wendy Witchcart & Crew and Team Hooligan? I mean Hooligan appeared in Sonic Mania so surely they at least are usable right?

I suspect that they're potentially on the table, being game characters, but it might be a long long time until we get to see them - and when/if we do, they'll essentially be rebooted again, reimagined as if nobody had ever done them in a comic book before.  In this regard it's probably worth reconsidering this Sonic Stadium article, which concludes that there probably aren't rights issues as such with any of those characters; as you point out, the Hooligans just showed up in Mania, and Archie were using many of them (e.g. Witchcart) right up until the end.

It would be interesting to see the Hooligans re-examined with the recent discoveries that Bean and Bark weren't meant to be villains.  (Were they and Nack/Fang even a game-canon group before Mania?)

[Forte-Metallix]

1 hour ago, dwitefry666 said:

Which is a point: Has anyone from Team IDW said what's going down re: pre-Adventure characters that Archie used/redesigned like Mighty, Ray, The Battle Birds, Wendy Witchcart & Crew and Team Hooligan? I mean Hooligan appeared in Sonic Mania so surely they at least are usable right?

Ian Flynn said in an interview on Sonic Official that all the Classic game characters are fair game, so there's no reason for any of them not to appear at some point.

[Your Vest Friend]

7 minutes ago, FFWF said:

(Were they and Nack/Fang even a game-canon group before Mania?)

Not really. The link basically occurred because they were all in Sonic the Fighters together, and because five of the other cast were heroes I guess Ian felt making Bean and Bark villains when bringing them to the book would be a balance*. Plus there was nothing contradicting what we knew at the time (obviously not the case now).

Sonic Generations kind of grouped Bean and Bark together, but that was likely because they're exclusive to the same game (which is also why Mighty and Ray were lumped together; they're exclusive to SegaSonic the Hedgehog...based on what's allowed to be referenced anyway). And them and Fang being villains was a sneaky reference to the comic. 

*I bet Ian would have a bad time with the alignment "balance" of CTR. 

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, dwitefry666 said:

Rough and Tumble's hair confuses me, i get it and i get it's acruate to skunks but I keep thinking Tumble's hair is his tail and missing Rumble's Mohawk (because of the Tails like hair tuft at the front that's actually just the front of the Mohawk) - I respect that this might be a problem with me and not with the designs . Otherwise I'm fine with them, they remind me of Fang and the Post-Reboot redesigns of the the Witchcarters and I mean that in a good way. 

 

Yeah, same issue here. Hopefully, the in-comic design will pull it off much better.

Also, the redesigns for the Witchcarters are noticeably cuter than their original game appearances.

1 hour ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Everyone important character in Marvel/DC Comics is action-oriented human. Almost every important character in Steven Universe is an action-oriented gem. I fail to see your point.

I mean, gimme some counterproposition? Do you think Reboot Archie would be better if one of Freedom Fighters wasn't able to fight?

I guess Commissioner Gordon, Oracle, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and sometimes the Joker himself don't exist then.

 

9 minutes ago, FFWF said:

It would be interesting to see the Hooligans re-examined with the recent discoveries that Bean and Bark weren't meant to be villains.  (Were they and Nack/Fang even a game-canon group before Mania?)

To be fair, Bean and Bark lacked profiles for the longest time, were filling a quirky niche, and were always treated as not that bad anyway.

4 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

Sonic Generations kind of grouped Bean and Bark together, but that was likely because they're exclusive to the same game (which is also why Mighty and Ray were lumped together; they're exclusive to SegaSonic the Hedgehog...based on what's allowed to be referenced anyway). And them and Fang being villains was a sneaky reference to the comic. 

*I bet Ian would have a bad time with the alignment "balance" of CTR. 

Might was in Chaotix as well.

Fang was a side villain in his inception.

What is CTR?

[Your Vest Friend]

Just now, DabigRG said:

Might was in Chaotix as well.

I know, hence why I said he's exclusive to SSH based on what can be referenced; that game couldn't. 

Just now, DabigRG said:

Fang was a side villain in his inception.

I should have specified that it was more being the picks for the wanted posters together, because that was a reference to the comic. 

Just now, DabigRG said:

What is CTR?

Crash Team Racing. Out of 15 playable characters, four were heroes, two were neutral parties, and nine were villains. It has the exact opposite alignment distribution of the Sonic series, which is predominantly heroes.