Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[GOAT]

Hey all!

I am trying to order a subscription to the IDW Sonic Comics and can't figure it out! Is there a way to do this?

[Ryannumber1gamer]

5 minutes ago, GOAT said:

Hey all!

I am trying to order a subscription to the IDW Sonic Comics and can't figure it out! Is there a way to do this?

I'm not sure about a physical subscription (DC, Marvel and IDW never seem to run sub ads in their issues like Archie always did), but you can get a digital subscription through Comixlogy. I haven't used their sub feature myself, but I'd imagine it works relatively the same.

If you're in the UK, Forbidden Planet offers a mail subscription where they'll charge you whenever an issue is released and then post the issue out to you. I believe there's an international version too, but I don't know for sure.

Alternatively, if there's a comic store near you, you could always ask them to get the issues in for you. My local comic shop gets them in on time and holds them for me, so that's an option as well.

[GOAT]

So I decided to sign up for G Mart Comics. They will ship comics for you every month in subscription style (They charge you every month separately for a new issue). I will see how this works. Right in time for issue #25 too!

[Sega DogTagz]

I buy the issues digitally from IDW website and store them on my comp for easy access. I tend to buy in bulk (I'll let an arc or two stockpile before buying them all) and it seems like the best option for me rather than hoping my local comic shops have the last 6 or 7 issues in stock.

[Almar]

11 hours ago, Kazhnuz said:

- You lose the "alien"/"magical creature from elsewhere" imagery. Coming from another world create a whole new level of difference, that is the point that you should explore.

He's not though. Sonic was established from the start as being a hedgehog who acts like a human (Sonic 1's JP commercial even had him moonwalking and breakdancing in a modern city) who even was planned to have Madonna as a ladyfriend. His adventures started in Oceania and his opening level was a wacky California. The works which weren't vidya games that had enough involvement from SoJ like Sonic OVA or Man of the Year showed Sonic as interacing with demihumans (if not humans).

We see no solid evidence that anthros and humans behave differently or had a segregation (Sandoplis from Sonic and Knuckles would hint at humans and Echidnas both living on Angel Islan). Point is, "Sonic as alien" was more of a weird Western interpretation that had a bone thrown to it in Sonic X.

10 hours ago, StaticMania said:

Two Worlds means no humans, but since there have only ever been...6 actual human "characters" in this series, it means absolutely nothing that humans can't be used in this comic series.

Sure it does. If they're going to pretend the games before Unleashed all happened then they need to address their showings of humans with the lack of legit separation between funny animals and funny humans. It'd be different if they just flat-out said the games from Unleashed onward were a reboot with the games before not in the timeline anymore, but they didn't since they have bits like Sonic's reaction to Chaos in Forces and whatever happens with Shadow that play on illusions of connections.

8 hours ago, SBR2 said:

I'm honestly so surprised that people want humans so bad. 

I thought we all agreed that with the exception of maybe Professor Pickle the human charactersweren't anything to write home about. 

As for stuff in the human world we have already seen Final Egg so it's not like material from the games in that world are off limits or anything. 

"humans were never good so retcon them away" is just toady talk.

[Diogenes]

5 minutes ago, Almar said:

(Sandoplis from Sonic and Knuckles would hint at humans and Echidnas both living on Angel Islan)

I really don't think that's what we're supposed to take from that minor background detail.

[Almar]

It's in line with other examples like that statue in Wacky Workbench Past or Man of the Year. Not to mention Sonic Adventure having the Echidna's ruins be within train distance of Station Square (which went in line with Sonic 3's manual saying that AI was sent off of a continent).

As far as Peak Sonic goes, he lived in a wacky/magically wacky version of our world in the 90s. Not some Planet of the Furries or something like that.

[StaticMania]

1 hour ago, Almar said:

Sure it does. If they're going to pretend the games before Unleashed all happened then they need to address their showings of humans with the lack of legit separation between funny animals and funny humans. It'd be different if they just flat-out said the games from Unleashed onward were a reboot with the games before not in the timeline anymore, but they didn't since they have bits like Sonic's reaction to Chaos in Forces and whatever happens with Shadow that play on illusions of connections.

Again, there have only been 6 humans that ever mattered, being unable to create more for the comic means nothing...

[Almar]

By that argument you shouldn't include funny animals besides Sonic and his friends since the icon/actually highly regarded games (the Genesis Era, Adventures 1-2, Unleashed, Mania) didn't include all that many either per game and were either minimalist (so Sonic didn't interact with civilians) or just had humans be the civilians.

[StaticMania]

3 minutes ago, Almar said:

By that argument you shouldn't include funny animals besides...

Really?

The point isn't that they shouldn't be in the comic, the point is that it doesn't matter that they aren't.

[Almar]

And I pointed out it does if Ian ever wishes to write stories that incorporates elements (namely the humans besides Eggman and their lands) from the pre-Unleashed games in a notable way.

[StaticMania]

2 minutes ago, Almar said:

...elements from the pre-Unleashed games...

Elements like what?

G.U.N. and literally nothing else?

There's nothing of note that requires the humans to be acknowledged.

[Kazhnuz]

11 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Ian said on the most recent Bumblekast that he considers the Central City from Adventure 2 and the Central City from Sonic Battle with Tails' house in it, two different cities.

Because more than one city can be called Central City. Kind of like how there's more than one London and more than one Paris.

That's the kind of point that is true if we are talking about the real world, but I really don't see why he did that in a fantastic world. I don't blame him though : it's a choice that can makes sense (I would name the two city differently though, maybe with saying that the mention of Central City in Shadow was just a level name and not the city name - except if it's mentionned in a cutscene, that I really don't remember).

But eh, it's just for the moment my pet peeves. It'll certainly go away the day Flynn can show his human world, if he ever can… But I don't think that the ST would really be angry about that, they seems to be mostly about characters than lore, so it might be possible.

2 hours ago, Almar said:

He's not though. Sonic was established from the start as being a hedgehog who acts like a human (Sonic 1's JP commercial even had him moonwalking and breakdancing in a modern city) who even was planned to have Madonna as a ladyfriend. His adventures started in Oceania and his opening level was a wacky California. The works which weren't vidya games that had enough involvement from SoJ like Sonic OVA or Man of the Year showed Sonic as interacing with demihumans (if not humans).

We see no solid evidence that anthros and humans behave differently or had a segregation (Sandoplis from Sonic and Knuckles would hint at humans and Echidnas both living on Angel Islan). Point is, "Sonic as alien" was more of a weird Western interpretation that had a bone thrown to it in Sonic X.

Well, I technically don't really have to answer that as my point wasn't that "Sonic was alien/mythical before", but that you loose that imagery in the story context you say possible with just continent separation. Remember that originally my point was telling what kind of story can be done in a better way with two-world, not what "Sonic is supposed to be".

I don't really care about "what was first". We have enough of our version of "back to the roots" in Sonic like that for me, so just going back to "what was Sonic before" isn't for me that relevant, especially with such a rich history (that's why I don't want Sonic to be a rendition of "funny 90' earth", especially the "90" parts, which would just participate to make Sonic less and less relevant, exactly like the current "nostalgia" trend in the IP is doing). For me, in the first games, the "anthros" wasn't supposed to be really anything important, it was just a way to represent the main characters. The first games didn't have stuff like "anthro civilisations" and stuff like that, and only showed the main/important characters as anthro (and some statues because artistic stuff). It was a bit of a bugs-bunny-like worlds. But I don't feel that we should work only with this way.

What I personnally want is interesting stories and that they start to build something. The foundation is mostly a point of detail, as there are so many friggin foundation possible with the weird-but-interesting interpretations of this saga.

10 hours ago, Marco9966 said:

https://www.deviantart.com/majinssketchbook/art/Sonic-World-Map-748463079

How about we use this map? It's beautiful and pays homage to ALL the games.

Sonic's world is just one animal continent, and all the other continents (from SA and Sonic Unleashed) are human.

I still feel that it would make many stuff awkward. One world needs more mixed location/place to be interesting. For me, about that, the really best one-world interpretation was Flynn's in ArchieComics second timeline.

[Dr. Detective]

1 hour ago, Kazhnuz said:

That's the kind of point that is true if we are talking about the real world, but I really don't see why he did that in a fantastic world. I don't blame him though : it's a choice that can makes sense (I would name the two city differently though, maybe with saying that the mention of Central City in Shadow was just a level name and not the city name - except if it's mentionned in a cutscene, that I really don't remember).

But eh, it's just for the moment my pet peeves. It'll certainly go away the day Flynn can show his human world, if he ever can… But I don't think that the ST would really be angry about that, they seems to be mostly about characters than lore, so it might be possible.

I don't see why that would stop being the case in a fantasy world. Also, he did it because he wanted to include the cute little house from Sonic Battle in the story. If he can do that with an out for why it isn't the human world, of course he's going to take it. 

While Ian does have a lot more freedom than your average writer for something like this, the fact that he's having to work around it at all just exemplifies some of the frustration that comes along with keeping them seperate. 

Despite this supposedly being a thing, the games themselves aren't even interested in properly handling it. Even during the time where they gave a shit about story, it never came up. I'm gonna need some heavy convincing from the material itself in order to see the merit to it. As of now, it's just been a sea of confusion and hindrances. 

 

[Red Hot Jack]

My favorite World Map idea is still the one from Archie, and an old role play in my team's italian Sonic forum: basically it's the continents from Unleashed with the fantasy zones in them. I loved that idea, it blends the best out of the "2 worlds" into one.

They were setting that up in Archie, shame to see it go. Although I don't mind the current animal world.

I'm pretty sure the 2 worlds are based on respectively Unleashed and Forces, since those are the only games which don't feature hidden floating islands, outer space planets, storybooks or time travel, I appreciate that they actually took time to explore their world and sorta flesh it out. So if Ian were to expand and deepen the map, it should be based on those games IMO, Forces is the best fit for the animal world as the game really focuses on the mobians outside of the Sonic gang, something I've been wanting for a long time, I just wish it happened with a better quality game, eh.

This is one reason I don't mind the comic being inspired by Forces, it had its good ideas (if you take away Classic Sonic's pointless inclusion and more shit), it had a Whole world of storytelling possibilities which weren't used at all, so instead of retelling Forces, we are actually getting new stories with that cool setting, and it's why I'm loving the comic.

Like anthros, wispons, the rebuilding after the war, the consequences of Eggman's defeat, exploring and saving villages and other cool places, at first it didn't look like Ian was doing actual world building but now he does, we just need a better world map and not some crap drawn by a 6 year old (no offense, Cream/David Mariotte). I want to see Mystic Jungle, Chemical Plant, Metropolis and more zones from Sonic's past and maybe some original ones that fit into the animal world. What do you guys think?

[Bowbowis]

5 hours ago, StaticMania said:

Elements like what?

G.U.N. and literally nothing else?

There's nothing of note that requires the humans to be acknowledged.

Even if you think GUN is the only thing of value humans added its absence is still a glaring omission, considering its been an important part of Shadow and Rouge's characters since their inception and indirectly factors into Gemerl and Eggman's backstories as well. 

[StaticMania]

4 minutes ago, Bowbowis said:

...and indirectly factors into Gemerl and Eggman's backstories as well. 

It's completely incidental to Eggman's backstory, he looks up to his grandfather as a great scientist, G.U.N. has nothing to do with that. The fact he died by them isn't the part that matters to Eggman.

It's omission is mindsplitting...

[Shadowlax]

1 hour ago, Bowbowis said:

Even if you think GUN is the only thing of value humans added its absence is still a glaring omission, considering its been an important part of Shadow and Rouge's characters since their inception and indirectly factors into Gemerl and Eggman's backstories as well. 

Shadow and gemerl involving gun that story is done and rouge according to sega doesn't actually work for them

And eggman doesn't care

They don't add anything of value today.

[Red Hot Jack]

Guys, a bit of off-topic: Ian Flynn is creating his own online science-fantasy comic series, Drogune! It seems a really important project for him and Adam Bryce Thomas. Please support them by becoming a patreon if you can!

https://www.patreon.com/drogune

http://www.drogune.com/

I usually don't do advertising but I'm intrigued by this project, and I'm trying to support Ian and ABT in some way.

[SBR2]

9 hours ago, Almar said:

"humans were never good so retcon them away" is just toady talk.

I not so much that I think the Human Characters are bad it's just they weren't particularly interesting. I just don't care what the President or the GUN Commander or Princess Elise are up to.

[Shadowlax]

1 hour ago, SBR2 said:

I not so much that I think the Human Characters are bad it's just they weren't particularly interesting. I just don't care what the President or the GUN Commander or Princess Elise are up to.

Yeah like , it would be inflamatory to say that they were " bad" they are just....largely uninteresting compared to everyone and thing else even the more important ones are kinda weird and have very small use cases. And then in general aesthetically I would just prefer animal people, while this military is unamed, animal military is already more interesting than gun because its run by a legion of 3foot rainbow colored weirdos.

Like while it is extremely rare, and i'm not gonna pretend it isn't to bolster my point, it baffles me to see people suggest that Shadow and the " agents of gun " should be a thing. Like do you know how much media I experience where generic ass military people are the focus , and you want that in sonic? What in the hell?

No the set up we have with this resistance is wildly more interesting and we do not need imput from a military group who's only purpose to exist is to be criticized or made to look foolish. Because that's what GUN is for, you aren't supposed to think GUN is cool

 

[Marco9966]

4 hours ago, SBR2 said:

I not so much that I think the Human Characters are bad it's just they weren't particularly interesting. I just don't care what the President or the GUN Commander or Princess Elise are up to.

The only interesting humans for me was not Chris, not Elise, not Maria, but the citizens of Station Square. It was such a nice touch to see their stories evolve as the we evolve in the main story at the same time...

Example: the twins (next text is from https://speeps-highway.tumblr.com) : 

One twinc cares about the plane more than Tails and eavesdrops on Sonic’s conversation with him, then has a generally shitty vacation that involves being weirded out by story events (Froggy, Egg Carrier) and gambling away all her money at Casinopolis.

She tries to leave after the missile freaks her out, but instead suffers a breakdown on the station platform.

The other twin is friendlier to everyone (Concerned about Tails, talks about hugging Chao, likes Station Square) but she’s a bitch to her sister when she loses her money and gets stuck at the train station.

 

[Bowbowis]

9 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

Shadow and gemerl involving gun that story is done and rouge according to sega doesn't actually work for them

But of course they say that. Next I imagine they'll tell us Eggman would never try to kill anyone, "Ultimate Life-Form" is just a title Shadow gave himself because he's an arrogant douche, and Knuckles was never guardian of the Master Emerald.

In other news: Oceania is at war with Eastasia. Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.

 

10 hours ago, Shadowlax said:

They don't add anything of value today.

Only if you don't bother using them.

[Diogenes]

47 minutes ago, Bowbowis said:

But of course they say that. Next I imagine they'll tell us Eggman would never try to kill anyone, "Ultimate Life-Form" is just a title Shadow gave himself because he's an arrogant douche, and Knuckles was never guardian of the Master Emerald.

In other news: Oceania is at war with Eastasia. Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.

Honestly it's not that hard for me to believe that fans jumped the gun a bit on Shadow working for GUN. As far as I can remember '06 is the only game where anything like that happens, and not only did that game un-happen, it's not really explicit about how the two are connected in the first place. He's clearly working with them at the start, but it's not clear if he's properly joined up with them or just working with them because their interests align.

[Shadowlax]

34 minutes ago, Bowbowis said:

But of course they say that. Next I imagine they'll tell us Eggman would never try to kill anyone, "Ultimate Life-Form" is just a title Shadow gave himself because he's an arrogant douche, and Knuckles was never guardian of the Master Emerald.

In other news: Oceania is at war with Eastasia. Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.

I mean yeah, they control the canon. One day sonic characters in general will be unrecognizable to us.

I think that knuckles thing is actually gonna happen though

2 minutes ago, Diogenes said:

Honestly it's not that hard for me to believe that fans jumped the gun a bit on Shadow working for GUN. As far as I can remember '06 is the only game where anything like that happens, and not only did that game un-happen, it's not really explicit about how the two are connected in the first place. He's clearly working with them at the start, but it's not clear if he's properly joined up with them or just working with them because their interests align.

Yeah this

Also a lot of people didn't like that, so I find that clarification was only met with " Oh cool " the only people who seem upset with that are the people who think team dark is this family that lives at gun. And I feel to have that take you are already ignoring a lot about the characters involved already