Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[Wraith]

Tangle and Whisper continues to be great. Ian better think about scaling things down next arc, because he's doing way better with a much smaller scale and more personal stakes. Pairing these two together has turned out way better than I expected. Tangle's endless optimism might have seemed like a weakness at first, bu ends up having a lot of value when it comes to helping Whisper open up and work through her trauma. On the flipside she gets experience dealing with a really dangerous adversary outside of her sleepy village and is grounded a bit on the ways being a hero can be dangerous. good stuff.

RE: her backstory. what happened is pretty much what you could infer if you've been paying attention to prior issues, but that doesn't take the punch out. I'm surprised and a bit discomforted by the ruthlessness of it but it's executed well. It's made Whisper into a much more sympathetic character than anyone else in the book and sold Mimic as a slimy motherfucker. It hit the notes it needed to hit without being overly gratuitous, following some of the better examples of this series navigating tragedy.

I was kind of hoping Shadow was more directly involved somehow. Bringing back the androids doesn't mean a whole lot to me when that's functionally the same as them getting attacked by any other Eggman robot. I wonder if it'll cause problems with Shadow later but Whisper doesn't seem to hold much ill will toward him so I doubt it.

On the whole though I'm pretty happy with this little mini-arc.
 

[DabigRG]

7 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

 

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That the shadow illusions even existed. The leader says the hedgehogs(S) are mia and the only two he could be refering two are...actually mai are sonic and shadow. The latter would presumably be faked via illusions, however. If they are MIA that means that he doesn't think shadow's around. Which means that shadow clones aren't being used. Because even the resistance people who would genuinely be surprised that shadow was on the badguy side, were fooled by those clones. So odds are they if some rando is saying shadow is gone. He's just gone.

This in combination with shadow causing villagers to vanish in his wake in issue 6 a time period that would be elaborated to have been heavily edited , and the only character to have beef with shadow based around this period just had it elaborated on to have been a very specific scenario with a very specific kind of replacement enemy that allows them to not reference shadow in forces at all.

Whether at Ian's Discretion or at Sega's direction. " Shadow wasn't there don't ask " seems to be how they want to play that. And at least in this comic, that's a pretty interesting retcon. Well if they ever elaborate on where shadow actually was, but I get the funny feeling that might be one of life's mysteries.

 

 

 

 

Which was unfortunately the start of his tenure here being bottoms.

 

6 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

I know I'm risking setting this topic on fire again, but I was thinking about Shadow.

Considering recent events I know where I would took his 'development'

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Between his Phantom Fake, Zombie Shadow and now those Androids, people actually fear him. (I know not many people know about Diamond Cutters, but perhaps Shadow-Aindroids were weapon in war. Or maybe there could be a scene where Whisper in public act negatively towards him and people start getting ideas).

But twist, Shadow don't give a f@#$ what people think, just doing what he does and ignoring any hostilities towards him.

Except twist-twist (un-twist?) Shadow is just pretending. He is frustrated with situation, but doesn't even knows who to blame, so he's angry at himself, pushing his emotions down and himself to limits. And then someone has a little heart-to-heart with him and resolves it. Whisper would be surprisingly good choice since 1 being reserved she could notice emotions he's hiding. 2 She similarly blames herself for things that aren't her fault (death of her team) 

 

Are you suggesting Mephiles's prophecy is coming true?

6 hours ago, SBR2 said:

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I haven't read the issue but it honestly sounds less like it's a retcon and more like Eggman just has some left over Shadow Androids to me. 

 

Pretty much.

6 hours ago, Tangled Jack said:

I'm guessing the phantom ruby along with Infinite are off-limits, so that may the the reason, but the phantoms existed in IDW too, Sonic mentions fighting the illusion of Metal in Forces in issue 7. They just can't be used I guess?

That could explain Why

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The android were used instead.

So yes, I think it's a way to dance around the mandates, but not really a retcon. And

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Shadow was officially missing during the six months.

 

Though there's also the Hooligans, I don't think it's a retcon.

 

3 hours ago, Zaysho said:

I checked a playthrough of this myself and, from the sounds of it, Shadow did escape Infinite's illusion well before Sonic got jumped. There are some weird parts of this, like at the beginning of the Virtual Reality level, Rouge (illusion) mentions Omega was destroyed three months ago, but this is likely just Infinite messing with Shadow's head. Doesn't really sound like he had any hold on Shadow as far as I can tell. It's not clear how much time passed but it sounds like it was just a brief test (Infinite even says the power hasn't been tuned yet). Shadow just disappears for six months since Episode Shadow ends surprisingly early (cutting to Sonic's defeat).

I mean Forces was rewritten a number of times.

 

2 hours ago, Dr. Franken-Mike said:

 

Mr. Ominous Monkey Man in a cloak also intrigued me a bit. I was wondering what could have been going through his mind that whole time. Did he see the writing on the wall and just decided he wanted to go out with a crowd of people? Was it truly just that he didn't want to be alone? Was he going crazy? Guess I'll never know. I've never been in a Zombot Apocalypse so I don't entirely know how I'd act. I normally am rather fond of being alone but would I be in that situation? Perhaps not.

 

I think it was a girl actually.

And those refugees just poured in, with Vector's simultaneous arrival possibly distracting Gemerl.

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One thing that definitely felt weird was the one page with the Deadly Six. The point where it cuts in makes little sense and the point where it shifts back to the Resistance HQ also felt strange. I'm not entirely sure what that was about as it didn't even cover anything we didn't already know. 

Probably because the following page ends with Vector and Espio showing up.

2 hours ago, StaticMania said:

Why are the Shadow androids Orange and...not...red like the game?

It's based on both the Four Shadow Androids with guns for hands and the sole one that looks just like Shadow but with Orange stripes.

Gotta distinguish them somehow.

54 minutes ago, Dr. Franken-Mike said:

How is it that I just noticed that Charmy's got spikes on his gloves and shoes now. Like how the Werehog transformation magically gave Sonic kleetes. 

It's been doing that for a while.

35 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

Charmy.

Oooh, that thing!

[Dr. Detective]

1 hour ago, DabigRG said:

I think it was a girl actually.

I don't think so. One clue is that the females in Sonic usually have drawn eyelashes. 

1 hour ago, DabigRG said:

Probably because the following page ends with Vector and Espio showing up.

What does that have to do with how weird the sudden Deadly Six page interjection is? 

[DabigRG]

1 minute ago, Dr. Franken-Mike said:

I don't think so. One clue is that the females in Sonic usually have drawn eyelashes. 

Hm, I might've misseen that then.

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What does that have to do with how weird the sudden Deadly Six page interjection is? 

Merely explaining why it's there over anywhere during the resulting breakout.

[Dr. Detective]

1 hour ago, DabigRG said:

Merely explaining why it's there over anywhere during the resulting breakout.

I don't think that explains it. Why does it matter that Vector and Espio show up on the next page and how does it make the sudden shift to the Deadly Six to hear them talk about stuff we already know not weird? 

[DabigRG]

Just now, Dr. Franken-Mike said:

I don't think that explains it. Why does it matter that Vector and Espio show up on the next page and how does it make the sudden shift to the Deadly Six to hear them talk about stuff we already know not weird? 

Because Vector starts talking in the final panel of the page before, which segues into the reveal of Charmy, which [I think] segues into the breach, which ends with two named casualties, the ending of the previous issue, and the apparent setup for next issue. Can't really place their scene anywhere in that, from what I recall.

[Dr. Detective]

1 hour ago, DabigRG said:

Because Vector starts talking in the final panel of the page before, which segues into the reveal of Charmy, which [I think] segues into the breach, which ends with two named casualties, the ending of the previous issue, and the apparent setup for next issue. Can't really place their scene anywhere in that, from what I recall.

No he doesn't. The panel of the page before the Deadly Six is Tails checking in with everyone.

Regardless, it's a full page of them talking about stuff we know they're already about to do just interjected in between everything and it's very weird. I'm not sure why it needed to be there at all. Just in case we didn't think the other Zeti weren't informed? 

[DabigRG]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Franken-Mike said:

No he doesn't. The panel of the page before the Deadly Six is Tails checking in with everyone.

Oh, that's how the page before ends! I just remembered that the first panel afterwards is Amy sending Cream away.

Intersecting plotlines? Egh, honestly not sure.

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Regardless, it's a full page of them talking about stuff we know they're already about to do just interjected in between everything and it's very weird. I'm not sure why it needed to be there at all. Just in case we didn't think the other Zeti weren't informed? 

Honestly, it kinda feels like a broken backup story counting down to whenever they show up. Which would ideally be soonish.

[SBR2]

4 hours ago, Zaysho said:

I checked a playthrough of this myself and, from the sounds of it, Shadow did escape Infinite's illusion well before Sonic got jumped. There are some weird parts of this, like at the beginning of the Virtual Reality level, Rouge (illusion) mentions Omega was destroyed three months ago, but this is likely just Infinite messing with Shadow's head. Doesn't really sound like he had any hold on Shadow as far as I can tell. It's not clear how much time passed but it sounds like it was just a brief test (Infinite even says the power hasn't been tuned yet). Shadow just disappears for six months since Episode Shadow ends surprisingly early (cutting to Sonic's defeat).

Ok I'll admit I was mistaken. Still I don't think it's too unlikely that with how much he hates Shadow he'd capture him again. 

[Zaysho]

11 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

Ok I'll admit I was mistaken. Still I don't think it's too unlikely that with how much he hates Shadow he'd capture him again. 

To be fair, capturing Shadow and locking him in a nightmare while creating a clone of him would have made a lot more sense, but Infinite isn't a smart villain.

[Bowbowis]

So, from what I've heard about the Diamond Cutters, Slinger is an ocelot, Smithy is a lion, and Claire is a howler monkey. That gives us a psychic and a mini-gun toting giant on a team with an octopus with disguise powers, a wolf with a sniper rifle, and a revolver wielding ocelot. 

It's like they wanted to do an Metal Gear Solid reference but got cold feet part way through.

Additionally, between the "Froggy where are you?" speech bubble and his cameo on the B cover it seems like Big was supposed to debut in Issue 22, but his part got cut for some reason.

 

Also: Surprise! I'm not dead!

[DabigRG]

2 minutes ago, Bowbowis said:

So, from what I've heard about the Diamond Cutters, Slinger is an ocelot, Smithy is a lion, and Claire is a howler monkey. That gives us a psychic and a mini-gun toting giant on a team with an octopus with disguise powers, a wolf with a sniper rifle, and a revolver wielding ocelot. 

It's like they wanted to do an Metal Gear Solid reference but got cold feet part way through.

 

Oh goddammit, I knew it referencing something!

[MetalSkulkBane]

4 hours ago, DabigRG said:

Are you suggesting Mephiles's prophecy is coming true?

Maybe? Best lies are the one interspersed with truth. He was technically right about Sonic triggering whole thing with Iblis.

But ultimately it's just logical road to take Shadow now, with Mephilles thing just being extra foundation and little extra salt to run into Shadow's wounds.

[Shadowlax]

there is a criticism going around that suggests tangle is a better sonic than sonic. Because of her ability to be emotionally intimate and venerable, and i dissagee ?

5 hours ago, DabigRG said:

Oh goddammit, I knew it referencing something!

heh, no snakes huh

twin hedgehogs though

[Shadowlax]

What in the world is the d6 gonna even do

Also, remember that plot point with the weird omega looking robot from year 1

So that's just gone right?

[Shadowlax]

7 hours ago, SBR2 said:

Ok I'll admit I was mistaken. Still I don't think it's too unlikely that with how much he hates Shadow he'd capture him again. 

eh....
 

Spoiler

 

I don't think you can't speculate that, game infinite largely doesn't care about or trapping them. He just probably didn't care. And that might seem weirdly inconsistent to you. Yes, infinite is not a good character and his motivations make little sense. I feel like to motivations you are trying to apply is making him a better smarter character than he actually is in a game full of narrative holes. Infinite didn't do anything and didn't care and kinda that's it. And its consistent with him just leaving people alive in the rest of the game.

But here's the fun part, you can say shadow did anything else for 6 months and no one can stop you

Shadow took a vacation in blaze's world for 6 months and forgot.

Shadow open a cat orphnage for 6 months?

Shadow Fought aliens for 6 months

Shadow was on a reality tv show for 6 months.

Shadow was playing ffxiv for 6 months strait

Shadow went to japan and helped kiryu with various yakuza based shenanigans for 6 months

Shadow knitted a gigantic sweater for one of them giant gem ladies from steven universe for 6 months

Shadow hung out with the TMNT for 6 months

Shadow perfected the perfect cookie recipe for 6 months

 

Its free real estate

 

 

[Celestia]

Spoiler

I really like the Shadow Android designs in T&W#3, specifically the eyes. Though I wish they looked "pointier" to reflect the low poly look they had in ShTH (aside from the multiplayer ones anyway and those were obviously the real inspiration).

 

5 hours ago, Bowbowis said:

Additionally, between the "Froggy where are you?" speech bubble and his cameo on the B cover it seems like Big was supposed to debut in Issue 22, but his part got cut for some reason.

It's possible, but with everything that was happening it doesn't seem like there's too much room for him to appear physically. I hope we see him for real after this arc is up though.

Spoiler

...Come to think of it he was probably one of the people who got infected in that room, and now I'm really upset.

 

27 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

What in the world is the d6 gonna even do

Also, remember that plot point with the weird omega looking robot from year 1

So that's just gone right?

Uhhh, you'll have to refresh my memory.

 

On a lighter(?) note

Jon why!!!

[StaticMania]

53 minutes ago, Shadowlax said:

there is a criticism going around that suggests tangle is a better sonic than sonic. Because of her ability to be emotionally intimate and venerable, and i dissagee ?

That doesn't make her a better Sonic.

That makes her a different character.

While it definitely won't happen any time soon or ever, it's suppose to be meaningful when a character like Sonic the Hedgehog is emotionally vulnerable.  He's the steel wall, if something gets to him that's when "poop" gets real. It also makes a good character flaw (not a writing flaw) that his inability to get intimate means he's not exactly the best person for emotional support. Uh...it could, if he went through stuff that affects him deep enough to empathize with others.

[Shadowlax]

16 minutes ago, Celestia said:

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I really like the Shadow Android designs in T&W#3, specifically the eyes. Though I wish they looked "pointier" to reflect the low poly look they had in ShTH (aside from the multiplayer ones anyway and those were obviously the real inspiration).

That would have been cute.

And if they were T posing in the pods.

16 minutes ago, Celestia said:

It's possible, but with everything that was happening it doesn't seem like there's too much room for him to appear physically. I hope we see him for real after this arc is up though.

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...Come to think of it he was probably one of the people who got infected in that room, and now I'm really upset.

 

Uhhh, you'll have to refresh my memory.

There was a silver robot, year one. I swear this is real looked like an e series looked kinda like omega, was brought out as part of a big plan. I think maybe the idea was to have like omega evil or converted or something ,but plans changed and omega just wasn't in year 1 at all.

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On a lighter(?) note

Jon why!!!

Jon has no soul and all he does is tweet cursed shit so I don't expect anything else from him. I'm still mad at him for the cursed lion king skunk fart thing

 

3 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

That doesn't make her a better Sonic.

That makes her a different character.

While it definitely won't happen any time soon or ever, it's suppose to be meaningful when a character like Sonic the Hedgehog is emotionally vulnerable.  He's the steel wall, if something gets to him that's when "poop" gets real. It also makes a good character flaw (not a writing flaw) that his inability to get intimate means he's not exactly the best person for emotional support. Uh...it could, if he went through stuff that affects him deep enough to empathize with others.

I agree with everything you said. Its why I disagree with the assessment. And I feel like a lot of people want sonic to be the nicest guy ever , but he isn't and he shouldn't be. Obviously STC sonic is way way way too far,and various points in pre-boot archie are too far.

But I feel like peoples problems might be less so that the flaw exists and more so it isn't called attention to. I feel like if he were occasionally responded to for being like that on occasion criticism would die down. Like he ties to make a joke in a very serious situation to lighten the mood but whoever its about just looks at him and he kinda just shuts up. Then it looks like a charming character flaw of a teen, rather than anything socieopathic

[MetalSkulkBane]

That " weird omega looking robot from year 1 " appeared in #8. It was just another of E-100 series, like Gamma. Archie Reboot had tons of those bastards, I guess Flynn wasn't sure yet if he wants to still use them in IDW or not. (If you ask me he should continue the numbering of Archie, pretending it's still the same line. It would be cool).

[Celestia]

Ohhh, I remember now. In fact it was E-107 Theta, which was even a number/designation that wasn't used in post-reboot but WAS alluded to a few times. I feel like we might see the rest of the line again but they'll probably have new designs.

[Shadowlax]

Ok well thanks for the clarification its presence than the nothing that followed confused me

[thumbs13]

They better not have infected my boi Big offscreen. 

[Indigo Rush]

15 hours ago, StaticMania said:

Why are the Shadow androids Orange and...not...red like the game?

Probably a reference to Shadow the Hedgehog's multiplayer mode:

 

It's presumed that the orange-striped Shadow is an 'android' with the red-striped one being the original, so this is probably a two-birds-one-stone situation where they use that color scheme to help differentiate them from the original and to give a subtle nod to the game.

[Celestia]

Wow. I actually forgot the droids had eyes like that already (granted, not the orange ones).

It doesn't help that when I first read the issue I also thought they were the normal red-striped ones. My eyesight is as bad as my memory. Get off my lawn