Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[Multikaris]

2 hours ago, Razule said:

Do we really need to spoiler theories?

  Reveal hidden contents

Maybe it's not considered a part of the "classic brand" as long as it's not currently used in the new classic games.

 

Or maybe they’re simply totally forbidden, as evidenced by the lack of an entry in the Jam character guide.

[Sgt Nate V]

Spoiler

the last page is giving me a very dr. claw feeling

also this issue felt really lacking

[Forte-Metallix]

6 hours ago, Jack the Maniac said:

New exclusive interview: Here

"With Sonic Generations, Sonic Mania and other games leaning into gamer nostalgia for the classic Sonic look (short, light blue, etc.), did that affect how you approached the property this time around?"

"Nope. Classic Sonic has become his own thing, clear and distinct from Modern Sonic. I’m entirely open to dipping into the Classic Sonic side of things one day, but for now we’re starting out simple with the book built on the modern branch of the franchise."

Oh, thank Solaris. 

[Atharun]

The issue was ok. Art was good. It seemed like a decent starter issue but I wish there was a little more to it. Seemed to go by very fast.

[Heckboy]

I posted a "review" the other day when the issue leaked so I'm basically just repeating myself, but I have to say reading it again properly, yeah, it really is underwhelming. There's nothing much going on here, just mainly a drawn-out, visually unengaging action sequence without anything particularly clever or unique about it. The general premise of "Sonic finds town in trouble, gets help from friend in smashing robots" is simple and could certainly make for a fine little introductory action story on its own, but I dunno, the way it's done here is pretty unremarkable. It makes me ask myself: if this were a new series completely unrelated to Sonic, would I (or anyone, for that matter) be willing to spend four bucks on this? I can't speak for anyone else, but for me at least, I... don't think I would.

But as I said before, I'm not writing the comic off completely yet, this is just one issue of a quick Forces follow-up to set up further stories and introduce characters, the mysterious villain could be interesting, etc. So we'll see, hopefully things'll pick up soon. 

[The Kid]

So I bought the bundle from the sega shop. How do I redeem my digital copies of the comics?

[Polkadi~☆]

I got my copy of issue 1.

It's fun, I like it, even though it admittedly is a bit weak. World building is nonexistent for a starting comic, but man, am I happy to see Sonic in a comic book again. It's like it never left. And Cover A looks so freakin' cool, with credit to Hesse's awesome work.

And it feels so weird to see the book look barren, thanks to the lack of editor notes referring to someone mentioning a previous issue. It's just a personal thing, but after years of Archie, it's just so unusual to see it like this.

Anyways, with the world building issue 1 lacks, I hope issue 2 can build upon next week.

[DaddlerTheDalek]

I liked issue #1 of IDW Sonic. It was simple but fun. It was great to see Sonic & Tails work together like that.

[Red Hot Jack]

To bring some more positivity, this issue didn't have much but the next ones seem to be more interesting, there is stuff going on:

Issue 2 - Sonic and Amy banter, resistance request for Sonic

Issue 3 - Team up with Knuckles vs Rough and Tumble

Issue 4 - Blaze and the debut of Tangle, possibly their own plots going on

Issue 5 - Finally Eggman's whereabouts plus the Chaotix

Issue 6 - Sonic vs Shadow for the fate of Eggman, whether to kill him or not, plus Rouge, this one especially seems interesting.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Ok, re-read #1. Feels better, now that I lowered my expectations, still think could be better. Two extra thoughts

- The first page with all those robots is pretty sweet (only Heroes Boss looks lame). Interesting that they all Modern bosses. No Big Arms, Deah Egg Robot (well, sorta) or ... Great Eggman Robot was it called? I wonder if it's on purpose.

- We owe Forces one important thing: Mobians. After 25+ years Sonic Forces is the first game saying "yes, furry-people cities exist in games too". To that point, we still could assume that (Sol Dimension aside) this world is populated by 20 talking animals or less.
Even worse for newcomers. Keep in mind that for the last 10 years games took place in space, weird Nostalgia Pocket Dimension or Sonic Boom. Not much of a setting.

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

Finished reading issue 1. It's alright, a simple plot but with a few neat moments.

After the pretty weak role he had in Sonic Forces, it’s pretty nice to see Tails back on the act, assisting Sonic in taking out the badniks and saving the people in Park Avenue. Tails feels sort of balanced here, while helping out using his abilities, he also shows concern for Sonic after what had happened to him in the game, and it was pretty nice to see Sonic assure him that he’ll be careful.

While the bromance was pretty nice, I liked how snarky and cocky Sonic was, winking to people who he saved, being casual while dodging the robots and just being cool in general. These panels are my favorite part of the issue, something about those expressions and Tails being not amused was pretty funny. 

Speaking of the art, it’s pretty good. It’s nice to see Tracy Yardley! drawing Sonic again. Not sure if it’s me but the style looks slightly different this time around. Maybe the penciling/inking might have something to do with that. Sonic’s running and fighting stances were nicely done and the expressions were fitting. Considering the amount of covers for this one, my favorites have to be the ones done by Natalie Fourdraine and Tyson Heese.

 

Heese's Modern Sonic looks pretty cool here and Fourdraine's style is pretty fresh, not to mention those colors look really good, with one more bright and the other looking like it used a color pallete pleasing to the eye.

Here's hoping Issue 2 kicks things up a notch!

 

[Detective Kaito]

Man, it has been a really long time since I've read a Sonic comic. This issue was pretty good, it's great to see characters interacting with each other without cringe-worthy dialogue.

Also nice to see that Tails isn't a pussy, he's pretty cool and more independent.

[Marco9966]

When do we get previews for issue 2?

My simple timeline before the comics:

Sonic 1-2-3&K-CD

Sonic Adventure1-2, Heroes, Shadow The Hedgehog

Sonic Rush1-2

Sonic Rivals1-2

Sonic Unleashed

Sonic Colors-Lost World

Sonic Forces

 

[Detective Kaito]

45 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

When do we get previews for issue 2?

My simple timeline before the comics:

Sonic 1-2-3&K-CD

Sonic Adventure1-2, Heroes, Shadow The Hedgehog

Sonic Rush1-2

Sonic Rivals1-2

Sonic Unleashed

Sonic Colors-Lost World

Sonic Forces

 

I think it's safe to assume that the Classic Sonic games didn't happen in the comics. Classic and Modern Sonic are now 2 different characters.

[Big Panda]

I was originally going to keep up what I’d been doing with Archie and be a variant cover collector. The sheer amount of them was already putting me off keeping that promise, but now seeing just how much any version of issue 1 is currently going for on eBay...

EDIT: *the Kieren Gates variant is going for around $80 online*

 

[Marco9966]

24 minutes ago, Detective Kaito said:

I think it's safe to assume that the Classic Sonic games didn't happen in the comics. Classic and Modern Sonic are now 2 different characters.

Yeah, but Sonic still met Eggman, Tails, Knuckles and Amy in these games.

And Sonic Adventure 1 shows flashbacks to Sonic meeting Amy and Tails for the first time. (at least in modern style).

I think Sonic Mania is not canon and in the neo-classic universe though.

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, Detective Kaito said:

Man, it has been a really long time since I've read a Sonic comic. This issue was pretty good, it's great to see characters interacting with each other without cringe-worthy dialogue.

Also nice to see that Tails isn't a pussy, he's pretty cool and more dependent.

Independent

 

28 minutes ago, Ernest-Panda said:

I was originally going to keep up what I’d been doing with Archie and be a variant cover collector. The sheer amount of them was already putting me off keeping that promise, but now seeing just how much any version of issue 1 is currently going for on eBay...

EDIT: *the Kieren Gates variant is going for around $80 online*

 

Oh, so that's where that soundclip came from! :joy: 

[Your Vest Friend]

9 minutes ago, Marco9966 said:

Yeah, but Sonic still met Eggman, Tails, Knuckles and Amy in these games.

And Sonic Adventure 1 shows flashbacks to Sonic meeting Amy and Tails for the first time. (at least in modern style).

I think Sonic Mania is not canon and in the neo-classic universe though.

This is pretty much how it is, and honestly has been since Adventure, the main classic games sort of happened, but in broad strokes and with modern designs instead. 

[MetalSkulkBane]

17 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

This is pretty much how it is, and honestly has been since Adventure, the main classic games sort of happened, but in broad strokes and with modern designs instead. 

While no one said it offically, I always assumed that Classic and Modern where one guy till Generations, which caused a time-split. (With design change being something we should just ignore, like Batman shooting people in his early comics.)

That just makes most sense to me.

[The Kid]

Man the amount of variants for each issue is completely unneeded. It almost makes me want to skip getting them altogether lol. 

[Razule]

1 hour ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

While no one said it offically, I always assumed that Classic and Modern where one guy till Generations, which caused a time-split. (With design change being something we should just ignore, like Batman shooting people in his early comics.)

That just makes most sense to me.

I think it was Generations that re-canonized Classic Sonic's existence. 

[Your Vest Friend]

That assumption doesn't work when there are characters that exist in the classic universe but not the modern universe. They didn't straight up evaporate before Sonic Adventure, they were just never there as far as they're concerned. 

[Razule]

25 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

That assumption doesn't work when there are characters that exist in the classic universe but not the modern universe. They didn't straight up evaporate before Sonic Adventure, they were just never there as far as they're concerned. 

Well.. yeah, that's what I meant pretty much. After Adventure, Modern Sonic's world was simply always how it was. And after Generations, Classic Sonic now actually exists as a separate entity.

[MetalSkulkBane]

58 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

That assumption doesn't work when there are characters that exist in the classic universe but not the modern universe. They didn't straight up evaporate before Sonic Adventure, they were just never there as far as they're concerned. 

That's... really good point. The best answer I can think of is that all those characters exist in both universes. It just happens that Classic Shadow will never awake, Classic Silver never leave future, etc., while Modern Mighty just lives his life, somehow never fighting evil. Maybe Classic Sonic never finds a way to visit Earth.

That works but requires a lot of assumptions and buying some incredible coincidences.

[Multikaris]

32 minutes ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

That's... really good point. The best answer I can think of is that all those characters exist in both universes. It just happens that Classic Shadow will never awake, Classic Silver never leave future, etc., while Modern Mighty just lives his life, somehow never fighting evil. Maybe Classic Sonic never finds a way to visit Earth.

That works but requires a lot of assumptions and buying some incredible coincidences.

Most prominently shown with Mania and Forces. This is shown concerning the fate of the Little Planet in each game. In Classic’s world, the Little Planet is safe and sound. The Modern one had to be destroyed by Classic Sonic after years of Eggman occupation (or, it was already dead and gone due to eggman’s rule and Classic was destroying a corpse of something that stopped living long ago.). Boom seems to be the only one that’s truly divergent (for now), while everything else, like the comics and social media, just doesn’t matter at all.