Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[Kuzu]

1 hour ago, Shadowlax said:

I'm not pretending to have anything superior to anything. Its a fun comic for children and that would be a weird claim to my superiority. I'm teasing, that's it.

I called last it year and i'm being funny about it. It ain't that serious. It sucks, the writing sucks right now, but it ain't that serious. And I do not think the situations are dissimulator, ya'll are using the exact same language. I dunno it ain't that serious,  given the reaction on the internet so far Ian might go back to the drawing board with shadow...again. It is what it is.

Shrugs

 

I've seen too many of your posts to believe that you're just "teasing", so I already know that's a lie.

You're trying to justify your attitude by (wrongfully) comparing what you said about a previous issue to what's being said now, simply because nobody agreed with you before. 

Its blatantly childish. And if you didn't care or felt it wasn't that serious, you wouldn't have felt the need to type all of that out to begin with and just left it alone.

[Shadowlax]

12 minutes ago, Kuzu the Boloedge said:

I've seen too many of your posts to believe that you're just "teasing", so I already know that's a lie.

I am but ok.

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You're trying to justify your attitude by (wrongfully) comparing what you said about a previous issue to what's being said now, simply because nobody agreed with you before.

I'm making a funny about a previous time because I thought it was funny.

Quote

 

Its blatantly childish. And if you didn't care or felt it wasn't that serious, you wouldn't have felt the need to type all of that out to begin with and just left it alone.

Or I thought of a joke, about something that happened last year. Typed out that joke and then it seemed like you were legitimately offended, so I tried to reassure you that I was not being serious nor did I think less of you or anyone else for disagreeing with me because I was trying to be nice.

" Haha remember when I said this " that was it, I literally wrote the original filled with memes and over exaggerating the situation because it was supposed to be funny. But ok, if you are legit offended or I made you feel bad or anything. I'm sorry.I didn't want to hurt your or anything , I was making a joke.

It was joke, I was joking .

26 minutes ago, Redbluethunder5 said:

Considering,how there seems to be no human character and G.U.N. doesn't seem to exist anymore,I'm starting to fear that Maria never existed in this canon

That's a bold claim. I mean at this point it makes sense. I mean if you want to know you can ask him yourself, he got a podcast and a patrion, we could just ask Ian if maria exists in this canon.

[Redbluethunder5]

3 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

I am but ok.

I'm making a funny about a previous time because I thought it was funny.

Or I thought of a joke, about something that happened last year. Typed out that joke and then it seemed like you were legitimately offended, so I tried to reassure you that I was not being serious nor did I think less of you or anyone else for disagreeing with me because I was trying to be nice.

" Haha remember when I said this " that was it, I literally wrote the original filled with memes and over exaggerating the situation because it was supposed to be funny. But ok, if you are legit offended or I made you feel bad or anything. I'm sorry.I didn't want to hurt your or anything , I was making a joke.

It was joke, I was joking .

That's a bold claim. I mean at this point it makes sense. I mean if you want to know you can ask him yourself, he got a podcast and a patrion, we could just ask Ian if maria exists in this canon.

It's just a theory and I hope I'm wrong about it

[Razule]

37 minutes ago, Redbluethunder5 said:

Considering,how there seems to be no human character and G.U.N. doesn't seem to exist anymore,I'm starting to fear that Maria never existed in this canon

Two Worlds.

[Kazhnuz]

That ^

I think that if Flynn bother talking about how there is a "Human World" in his podcast, we can consider that important human character "exists somewhere" (independantly of wether or not we will see the "Human World").

[Shadowlax]

22 minutes ago, Razule said:

Two Worlds.

 

19 minutes ago, Kazhnuz said:

That ^

I think that if Flynn bother talking about how there is a "Human World" in his podcast, we can consider that important human character "exists somewhere" (independantly of wether or not we will see the "Human World").

Two worlds can still exist and maria not exist

My original " It seems like SA2 and Maria never happened " doesn't discount the two worlds things, he's written as if those things never happened. His character as of currently is contradictory to...everything his character...is about. Now whether that game even happened is now in contention in my mind.

[Kazhnuz]

TBH, Maria happening and Shadow being more of a jerk isn't really incompatible to me. That's a huge case of "good is not nice" tropes, but that's not really incompatible, especially with things in Sonic X, where he tended to shut himself a lot from other and stuff. Maria can still be his drive to protect the world and too fight for the goodç, but what he suffered might make him less open to other, and way more unforgiving. (It would for me make even more sense about why he is way more radical than Sonic : because protecting the world is more "personnal" for him). And that's a tropes we see in a lot of fiction : people that are really harsh, edgy and kinda anti-heroïc, but have a "morality pet" (alive or not) that make them do the "right choice". (something that bother me sometimes, when it's used to excuse horrible stuff, like for Severus Snape where his relationship with Lily is often used as a way to say "looks he is not a bad guy" #AngryHPFanRambling.)

Maybe you should elaborate more about how this would invalidate the "Maria" part of his backstory, because I really don't see it, and I would be pretty interested to understand better.

[Big Panda]

We know SA2 happened in some form because we’ve had flashbacks to it.

[Redbluethunder5]

44 minutes ago, Razule said:

Two Worlds.

So now all the humans moved into another world,since until recently the existed in the same world as them?

15 minutes ago, Kazhnuz said:

TBH, Maria happening and Shadow being more of a jerk isn't really incompatible to me. That's a huge case of "good is not nice" tropes, but that's not really incompatible, especially with things in Sonic X, where he tended to shut himself a lot from other and stuff. Maria can still be his drive to protect the world and too fight for the goodç, but what he suffered might make him less open to other, and way more unforgiving. (It would for me make even more sense about why he is way more radical than Sonic : because protecting the world is more "personnal" for him). And that's a tropes we see in a lot of fiction : people that are really harsh, edgy and kinda anti-heroïc, but have a "morality pet" (alive or not) that make them do the "right choice". (something that bother me sometimes, when it's used to excuse horrible stuff, like for Severus Snape where his relationship with Lily is often used as a way to say "looks he is not a bad guy" #AngryHPFanRambling.)

Maybe you should elaborate more about how this would invalidate the "Maria" part of his backstory, because I really don't see it, and I would be pretty interested to understand better.

Shadow developed since then and he cares about people,but now in the comic he doesn't

[StaticMania]

2 hours ago, Your Vest Friend said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Shadow is aware one can both run and fight, right?

 

Considering his and Sonic's main fighting style, he honestly should be well aware of that.

[Shadowlax]

15 minutes ago, Ernest the Panda said:

We know SA2 happened in some form because we’ve had flashbacks to it.

A version did , that doesn't garuntee maria or anything else happened the same way is what i'm saying.

 

21 minutes ago, Kazhnuz said:

TBH, Maria happening and Shadow being more of a jerk isn't really incompatible to me. That's a huge case of "good is not nice" tropes, but that's not really incompatible, especially with things in Sonic X, where he tended to shut himself a lot from other and stuff. Maria can still be his drive to protect the world and too fight for the goodç, but what he suffered might make him less open to other, and way more unforgiving. (It would for me make even more sense about why he is way more radical than Sonic : because protecting the world is more "personnal" for him). And that's a tropes we see in a lot of fiction : people that are really harsh, edgy and kinda anti-heroïc, but have a "morality pet" (alive or not) that make them do the "right choice". (something that bother me sometimes, when it's used to excuse horrible stuff, like for Severus Snape where his relationship with Lily is often used as a way to say "looks he is not a bad guy" #AngryHPFanRambling.)

Sonic X shouldn't be the basis for any characterization, and if you are doing that you already messed up.

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Maybe you should elaborate more about how this would invalidate the "Maria" part of his backstory, because I really don't see it, and I would be pretty interested to understand better.

And its not him being a jerk that's the issue. Shadow's an asshole, its why I like him. Its his decision making. In Sonic Adventure 2, the rawest version of this character, the one who is willing to blow up an entire planet over 1 person. He went out to try and save people even while being evil and saw the value in working together and didn't just go do shit by himself.  In Sonic adventure 2, the first game, and this only intensifies as his character continues throughout the series. Even if 06 never happened, at the end of shadow's game which a version of it did happen.  He learns this.

This is contradictory to shadow's character on a baseline. " Shadow will do anything to see his goals done " and that means working with someone he finds to be profoundly stupid because they caused the issue in the first place.  Maria's whole deal was to tell shadow to try and help people be better. But this is contradictory, this is him doing everything by himself not to keep everyone else safe but because he's " The best " which has never actually been a part of his characterization. His claim to being the " ultimate lifeforms " is often when used in more serious contexts a sign of his insecurities, he feels like he's a monster. This whole situation seems insanely out of character. Even the parody version of him from the twitter take over has more correct characterization than this .

I don't care if shadow's an asshole, that's the point. What I care about is that he's also a good person and generally has a pretty cool head on his shoulders and can actually do introspection. But there's none of that here, its just really fucking bad.

[Kellodrawsalot]

Welp that design at the end looks pretty cool, Sonic is gonna have a hard time fighting that

[Meta77]

I always enjoy when fans act like they wrote shadow.  People change, people struggle. Shadow struggles.  He tries to do right but he's not perfect. He has some pride and wants to protect others but not always in the right way. There's a reason Sega always bils him as an anti hero. They are not perfect  but he's trying his best also I'm sure he's upset he let eggman go but it's not eggman fault he's doing all this

[Diogenes]

Overconfident lone wolf character gets punished for acting like an overconfident lone wolf, this is bad writing somehow? I really don't get these complaints.

[Shadowlax]

7 minutes ago, Meta77 said:

I always enjoy when fans act like they wrote shadow.  People change, people struggle. Shadow struggles.  He tries to do right but he's not perfect. He has some pride and wants to protect others but not always in the right way. There's a reason Sega always bils him as an anti hero. They are not perfect  but he's trying his best also I'm sure he's upset he let eggman go but it's not eggman fault he's doing all this

No one wants him to be perfect this is terrible. This legit goes against his base characterization.  Characters change but there's a base line to reference , the parts people like and there's nothing there.

1 minute ago, Diogenes said:

Overconfident lone wolf character gets punished for acting like an overconfident lone wolf, this is bad writing somehow? I really don't get these complaints.

Him being out of character is bad writing yeah

[Redbluethunder5]

3 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Overconfident lone wolf character gets punished for acting like an overconfident lone wolf, this is bad writing somehow? I really don't get these complaints.

Because Shadow is supposed to have matured and developed: he is not that dumb! As soon as he saw he was infected he would have runned!

[Ryannumber1gamer]

To be fair, it isn’t that out there. Shadow basically doesn’t age and is immune to most diseases, because he was created to help cure Maria’s disease (assuming that’s still canon to the games/comics). 

So on one hand, I can kind of get why he wouldn’t run and claim it’s because he’s the Ultimate Lifeform, because to him so far, he’s been immune to any infections or diseases, but on the other hand, like if they could see the metal already beginning to develop around him, it becomes obvious that Shadow should’ve knew that wasn’t going to fly and had to run to save himself, otherwise it makes him look a bit stupid.

i can’t really say one way or the other til I see the issue proper though.

[Shadowlax]

8 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

To be fair, it isn’t that out there. Shadow basically doesn’t age and is immune to most diseases, because he was created to help cure Maria’s disease (assuming that’s still canon to the games/comics). 

So on one hand, I can kind of get why he wouldn’t run and claim it’s because he’s the Ultimate Lifeform, because to him so far, he’s been immune to any infections or diseases, but on the other hand, like if they could see the metal already beginning to develop around him, it becomes obvious that Shadow should’ve knew that wasn’t going to fly and had to run to save himself, otherwise it makes him look a bit stupid.

i can’t really say one way or the other til I see the issue proper though.

Him thinking he would be fine is cool, that was actually a neat detail. Thars a good in character mistake! The decision made after that and the lines said is my issue

[thumbs13]

Sega hasn't forgotten about Maria, so if Maria isn't a thing in the comics, it would specifically be a creative decision on Ian's part. I can't really see that.

[JosepHenry]

A few pages ago I saw some people questioning if Ian hates Shadow...

.... Are you freaking kidding me? 

Did you guys forgot Sonic Universe? The thing that made Shadow 10 times more likable? Written by Ian Flynn?

[Shadowlax]

1 minute ago, JosepHenry said:

A few pages ago I saw some people questioning if Ian hates Shadow...

.... Are you freaking kidding me? 

Did you guys forgot Sonic Universe? The thing that made Shadow 10 times more likable? Written by Ian Flynn?

I said that, that wasn't serious by the way. Its clear he doesn't care for him too much, but I don't think he hates him.

That said though you don't have to like or get a character to write them competently. And I have read plenty of good books by people who legit hate the character they are writing. You can actually get some genuinely interesting criticism sometimes when that happens. Or the thundercats reboot a while ago, that was really bad, but sometimes its pretty neat.

[Diogenes]

19 minutes ago, Redbluethunder5 said:

Because Shadow is supposed to have matured and developed: he is not that dumb! As soon as he saw he was infected he would have runned!

Thinking like this assumes that because a character has "developed" they're no longer capable of making mistakes. Shadow may have developed from when he was first introduced but he's still got a big ego and he's currently pissed at Sonic, the guy who told him to run if he gets infected, the guy who he blames for this whole mess for getting in his way with Eggman. It's natural enough that he'd keep following his gut and try to do things his way than let someone else tell him what to do when that went so wrong last time. It's the wrong choice, obviously, but it doesn't come from him being "dumb".

[StaticMania]

It might make less sense, but I would've preferred Shadow be immune to the virus...like a robot.

[Kuzu]

That kind of stops being an excuse when he keeps fighting after he sees that he has been infected.

 

I know what it was going for; overconfident lone wolf gets beaten. It's just done in a very stupid way here. If Shadow DIDN'T know he could be infected, then that's one thing, he'd just be reckless which is fine. But everyone basically told him what not to do, and he does the exact opposite of that and this is treated as a shocking thing.

Its not even that it's out of character, it just makes Shadow look really stupid beyond the suspension of disbelief.

 

[MetalSkulkBane]

Issue 19.

Ok, as always talking about Shadow started a fire. So before I add more gasoline, let's start with positives, especially one that everyone overlooked.

Artwork is GREAT.

I was worried that we're getting noob over Stanley, Skelly or Yardley, but those Zombots are way better than in last 2 issues. Yardely makes them look like imps or something, too lively, too mischievous. Lawrance made dumb but unstoppable threat. And in #18 there maybe 4 zombie per panel. Here were drowning in buggers. And as much as I love Herms coloring, Curry's dry pallet gives much better somber tone. This finally FEELS like a zombie apocalypse.

(Also Cream just lost her best friend, but she keeps updating her map. What a trooper.)

World building is still worse than Archie, but it's slooowly improving (I'm still waiting for not-generic-city location). Omega is still amazing, might be one of his best issues. Rouge... actually does very little, poor girl.

Ok, prepare marshmallows for bonfire, time to talk about Shadow. (Spoilers for  the ending, not that it matter by this point).

- Just like in previous issues Shadow is still badass. I actually hoped for a GUN truck to show-up and his fighting style is satisfyingly brutal.
- He's jerk to Sonic, but Sonic kiiiinda deserves it. And Shadow's angry, he probably doesn't really meant it.
- Rest of his dialogue is a little annoying, too much talking how great he is. And that's more 2010s Shadow, not pre-06. Shadow always has s somewhat of a ego, but till Free Riders he always balances it with some kind of emotional conflict (Maria, identity, human hatred, being a weapon, etc) and/or stoic focus on a job.
- Also, SHADOW CARES ABOUT PEOPLE. He promised Maria to give people chance to be happy! In Sonic Battle he claimed that all weapons (including him) should be destroyed so there can be peace! He doesn't show it, but he cares! Still, despite my little rant, dialogue isn't that bad.
- And then ENDING happens. Thanks to bloody spoilers I knew beforehand the twist, so I wondered how he will get infected. By protecting someone? He is known for heroic sacrifices. Or maybe Eggman will target him, since he's a too dangerous?

No! Shadow bear hugs the Idiot Ball like his life depends on it!

On 7/24/2019 at 5:27 PM, Diogenes said:

Overconfident lone wolf character gets punished for acting like an overconfident lone wolf, this is bad writing somehow?

There is being overconfident (getting infected) and then there is being idiot who knows staying will kill infect him, but doing it anyway because... ego. Also Shadow ran few  times in the past (from police in SA2, Battle after getting hurt, Chronicles in his boss battle, Sir Lancelot during final act).

But what really annoys me is that IDW Shadow is absolute screwing up idiot ALL THE TIME.
Isuse 6 he tries to kill Tinker/fails to kill Tinker (pick which you think was a crime), issue 10 he powered up Metal, now this. I get that Flynn doesn't want to make Shadow invincible Mary Sue, but he tips the scale too much in other direction. It's just like early Archie when Shadow was punching bag for Scourge/Lara-Su/Adam/Enerjack/SuperScourge. Any of those defeats would been fine, in a row got a little grading.

PLEEEEASE Flynn, let Shadow do one badass thing, that won't be instantly undone by his ego.

On 7/24/2019 at 3:42 PM, Redbluethunder5 said:

Considering,how there seems to be no human character and G.U.N. doesn't seem to exist anymore,I'm starting to fear that Maria never existed in this canon

And Eggman is what, a very fat naked mole rat?

You're overreacting. That would be more confusing that Two World thing.