Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[Sir Tinstripe]

10 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Issue 27 is still out tomorrow. So far the April releases are fine too but since May is out that means the very last issue of the Metal Virus arc is on the back burner which is almost too cosmic and cruel in terms of timing.

 

This made me wish we didn't get so many delays at the start of this year. 

At least with some resolve we wouldn't have to worry much. 

Now with this happening with not even digital sales going on, this incoming hiatus is upsetting. 

Ironically enough, I want this real pandemic to end soon not just for this but for everyone around the world. 

[DabigRG]

3 hours ago, Your Vest Friend said:

That's Whisper dooting along with her gun in hover mode.

On an unrelated note some reviewer just posted one of the panels of #27 outside of the preview.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

One showing Cream infected.

 

Oh, I can sorta see it now. The quality was a little weak on my phone earlier.

1 hour ago, PC the Hedgehog said:

This one.

Oh yeah. Was there any ice in that story or is the point just fubar? 

1 hour ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Issue 27 is still out tomorrow. So far the April releases are fine too but since May is out that means the very last issue of the Metal Virus arc is on the back burner which is almost too cosmic and cruel in terms of timing.

 

Yeah, at least there's some consolation in addition to the news.

47 minutes ago, Sir Tinstripe said:

 

Ironically enough, I want this real pandemic to end soon not just for this but for everyone around the world. 

Second hundreded.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Okay, #27. Battle against Zomom and Zeena. In short: good. Action, action, action. Feels a bit fast, but after all that building up and stretching that exactly what I want. I just worry about the future: how they want to squeeze 4 remaining Zeti in 2 issues, without rushing the finale? I would really prefer if one Zeti was defeat in #26, then I would sleep better.

You know, I don't really feel the Chaos Emerald boost, makes me think Zeti don't know how to use them properly (which isn't that strange, when we last seen anyone using single emerald as power-up? Still, it kinda lowers the stake). Although they clarified that Zeti need Emeralds to control Zombots which is odd. Starline clearly didn't knew that when hiring them.

I'm still impressed that they managed to make Zomom creepy. When I first meat D6 I desperately looked for positives and though "He says he's gonna east Sonic. Cannibalism, that's kinda creepy right?" And yes, they only showed him chewing on hammer and that's uncomfortable already. His defeat is fairy satisfying. Only drawback is that we don't get much from "team-up" aspect. If anything, Tails kinda won on his own.

And Zeena is nice misspelling of place filled with sand and water. The red lines she made are weird, did she used them in games? Cream didn't kicked that much ass, but what you expected? She's a kid. Anyway

Spoiler

Gemerl managed to work around Zeena control. But not Metal Sonic? Alright, Gemerl is half-gizoid, I guess that makes sense. And him going papa bear was neat.

Cream's infection doesn't come as much surprise (it was on the cover) but still manages to pull few hearts strings. I'm glad we're almost done, but I do wonder how you follow on something like this? I know very few stories about post-zombie apocalypse.

20 hours ago, DabigRG said:

Ops. My bad, I forgot you were doing that.

It's okay happens...more often than I would like, but this time it was harmless

[Diogenes]

1 hour ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

The red lines she made are weird, did she used them in games?

Color's different, but yes.

[Wraith]

The Sonic-light issues are my favorite ones in this arc.  

Spoiler

Papa Gemerl is a king. Kinda felt like they were paying off the point earlier in the arc where he couldn't go against his programming when it came to helping Sonic. This establishes that he's still more human than machine at the end of the day. 

Good stuff. D6 getting humiliated is just the icing. 

 

[Zulon Eredas]

With all nonessential businesses forced to close in Ontario because of COVID-19, I won't be able to get the issue for the foreseeable future. 

[Big Panda]

Here’s a complaint I have that doesn’t involve at the actual story content:

To start, I just want to say the overall colour scheme they’ve now switched to for these pages (as well as the letters pages) are just plain ugly imo. The colours and graphics they used for the first 24 issues were way better.

Secondly, I gotta be honest in saying I just really don’t like the way IDW do their recap pages for these comics.

I wish they could just adopt Archie’s version:

 

Not only does Archie’s look nicer, it also catches the reader up on what they need to know and introduce the major characters in the space of a single page.

IDW’s method of putting together select panels from previous issues without much more context, and the fact they have to devote an entire page to roll calling every character in the story rather than just covering the vital ones just doesn’t work as well for me.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Few theories how this arc will go:

Spoiler

1 Only Core Cast will be included in finale.
Cream and Gemerl aren't coming home. That makes me think Espio, Whisper, Silver and Rouges will also not return to Angel Island for one reason or the other, keeping the actual finale a bit tighter.
And I wondered how they squeeze all Zeti in small space, which leads me to follow up theory: one of the groups will fail. Probably Babylon Rouges. Chaos Emerald will still get to Angel Island, but to Zavok's hand. (And Zor might use his weird power to close the portal, with Silver barely pushing Emerald in time).

2 Zombot Touch
If you look closely at Zeena right after Cream took her Emerald, you can see stains of the virus. That's cool detail that apparently Cream already infected her, but it's not used to full potential.
Imagine how badass would be if Cream intentionally touches the Zombots, to use that to defeat Zeena.
Shame that  didn't happened, but something tells me Flynn didn't missed that opportunity. Keep in mind Espio is one of his favorite, went solo and "already has tactic in mind". He could get infected, touch Zazz and then use his ninja training to keep himself aware just long enough to get emerald to safety. Also, that would allow him to join Vector and Charmy, a bittersweet reunion.

 

[VO.SUPER]

3 hours ago, Zulon Eredas said:

With all nonessential businesses forced to close in Ontario because of COVID-19, I won't be able to get the issue for the foreseeable future. 

Does IDW's website ship to canada? 

[DabigRG]

Caught Sonic 27(and neither virus, thankfully) and it was decent, though it felt like it went by pretty fast. But considering it features the Filler Two...apropos?

Spoiler

• Part of the reason it goes so straightforwardly is because the fights against them are nearly the only thing going on in the issue, with only the last page cutting away to Angel Island due to Zavok apparently having returned to change course. Of course, the other part would be the main cover itself--what you see is 89% what you get, just not as heavy.
• That combination leads to the main problem with this issue: the scenario presented is more interesting than what actually happens. Which haha, Never Trust a Cover or whatever, but the contents of the tattered pages were a little boring. 
  • Whether due to Amy/Tails slipping up or Zeena [somehow] cut n' running after eventually being table turned, having the two teams come together for whatever pages are left before ending at a cost would've been a greater bit of escalation. 
    • One could assume Master Zik might try to hightail it back to his apprentice, but that's irrelevant.
• The Ascended Fans(feel free to tell me if there is an established epithet) vs Zomom was probably one of the lesser matchups from the beginning since Tails & Amy are sorta of a whatever duo from what I can recall and Mr. BigHangry is likewise among the Zeti design & somewhat archetype-wise. And while he does play out variations of his twirl and digging move, he doesn't really make use of his other bizarre, seemingly air/gravity-based moves. As an extension, the fight itself is not much to write home about aside from the bit of deranged animation and Amy's reactions. 
  • Zomom's super basic build is funny in how it's something artists can either get right or get off and Ms Stanley seemed to take advantage of that here with his generally derpy facial expressions. It He looked like some crazed Mario enemy, to beat that overworked horse.  
  • Tossing the call of "because it's Tails,"  the one vague diversion about the matchup is him getting a chance at payback for Yellow's part in nearly robotizing him. Which while not here from the outset,  it is worth noting Zomom's position the last time we see him here, amusingly.
  • Also, grimly funny how Amy was unperturbed about seemingly bashing his face in him.
• Zeena is the more alluring struggle since she & Cream both had more to prove and also because Gemerl got to be important. Her sole, unique ability in the Enerbeam-esque whip/bars gets prominently used through some flexible slinging around of Gemerl, which is red instead of green(or brown?) because of the emerald. Though the outcome was mostly obvious, it was still a measure of emotional/satisfying.
  • Zeena was pretty pitiless here, immediately siccing Gemerl on Cream while laughing at her, slinging Gemerl around as a way of whistling while she works, seemingly teleporting into a shot on the worried girl(coming back to this...), and then mocking her while offering her to the Zombots. Makes her far more a legitimate socio and her comeuppance [extra] well deserved.
  • Fun fact: Green has the most inconsistent as well as almost zero note characterization of the Deadly Six. If you look things like that old Roger and Luka video about the characters, reading the old wiki entry reveals a number of varied traits that barely if ever show up in the game nevermind anywhere at once. Often she's elbow out and indifferent, other times she's vain and kind of a bimbo; sometimes she's cold-hearted and cruel, occasionally she's hot-tempered and vicious; allegedly, she's reliably efficient and then in the Japanese Dub more than anything, she's straight up the Lazy One. Her showing here seems to acknowledge a couple of them while maintaining a general mood as appropriate.
    • Funny how Skulk previously mentioned the Zeti as shallow, because Zeena's own criticisms of being nonprogressive were in fact worked in tandem with the played around with Designated Cat Fight trope: she sized Cream up as "the good little girl" type in opposition to herself and used that to toy with her before letting her be taken. Which would've been broken off with complaining about her arm cramping as she looks away in lost interest, no less.
  • Cream simultaneously got fairly skited and harrowed here. She talked up Gemerl's character & recognized her wrong despite the imminent danger he poses alongside Zeena's taunt, spindashed Zeena practically in the face(which may have been intentional even), stepped right on Zeena's whips before going off, and even tried fistfighting when she was lifted by the ears. She was also likely hit when Gemerl was manually overridden, got flung when Zeena retaliated, got kicked from behind, and then dangled to the Zombots in an arm bar. Which is what got her--all it takes is a scratch/drip.
    • She also seemed a little preoccupied at one critical point in fight, which was probably down to the word choice in addition to the tantrum. Kinda similar to after she lunged at Nack back in Treasure Team Tango, now that I think about it.
  • Gemerl got a cool bit of value here, from Cream recognizing his durability, to his crunchy workaround for the Zeti's electro-magnetics, to giving that bitch a beatdown before karmically tossing her to the wolves using her own whips.
    • Wholesome shoutout to him tossing the emerald into the Topaz's warp and then flying off intent on staying with Cream until it's over, one way or anther.
  • Zeena activating her ability kinda made me think of the Iron Queen, for some reason.
  • I admittedly missed Gemerl being thrown into the Zombots in part because "Zeena kicked Cream WHERE?!" o_0 Also, not to freudian-ly detract from her threat here, but did anyone else notice how her Emerald placement looks like a chastity belt?
• For a moment, I thought Zomom forgot he could control the Zombots when it was actually the Emerald initially; funnily enough, Zeena does the exact opposite. And while Zavok did say they could control dozens at a time on their own, it sorta makes sense that neither do so--Zomom is pinned on top of being simple and Zeena is straight up tossed into them.
  • Also, more Walking Dead flashbacks. Which was welcome at this point.
• Among the zombots include what appear to be a long-eared dog girl with a double/wagging tail and a male bat in a vest with fingerless gloves. Any reason why they seem to be sporting Quartz Beast spikes lately?
• "I'll be brave. I'll just hide my eyes. Like it's a scary movie." Poor precious.
• The issue ends with Sonic and Eggman seeing the Faceship arriving . 

 

[StaticMania]

So...Cream is like...the 3rd character to have spindashed in this comic.

I'm glad since she doesn't usually fight at all, but especially not without Cheese...I legit wondered what she would've really done there.

So that's cool.

[DabigRG]

8 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

 I just worry about the future: how they want to squeeze 4 remaining Zeti in 2 issues, without rushing the finale? I would really prefer if one Zeti was defeat in #26, then I would sleep better.

Yeah, that is a considerable concern with the pacing. It may also mean the fights with Zazz and Zor may not get that much pagetime.

8 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

You know, I don't really feel the Chaos Emerald boost, makes me think Zeti don't know how to use them properly (which isn't that strange, when we last seen anyone using single emerald as power-up? Still, it kinda lowers the stake). Although they clarified that Zeti need Emeralds to control Zombots which is odd. Starline clearly didn't knew that when hiring them.

Chaos Control. But yeah Zeena didn't need it to do her whip beyond maybe the flexibility of it and Zomon didn't use his at all.

The only other explanation is that they simply never tried to control them without the Emerald and so didn't have the feel. It helps that both Zomom and Zeena were incapacitated before they could do anything about it.

8 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

I'm still impressed that they managed to make Zomom creepy. When I first meat D6 I desperately looked for positives and though "He says he's gonna east Sonic. Cannibalism, that's kinda creepy right?"

 ?

8 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Only drawback is that we don't get much from "team-up" aspect. If anything, Tails kinda won on his own.

Oh yeah, that's a factor as well too.

8 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

And Zeena is nice misspelling of place filled with sand and water.

Say, what kinda haiku is that?

8 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

 Anyway

  Hide contents

Gemerl managed to work around Zeena control. But not Metal Sonic? Alright, Gemerl is half-gizoid, I guess that makes sense. And him going papa bear was neat.

It's also possible Zeena isn't quite as powerful as Zavok, but yeah that.

8 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Spoiler

Cream's infection doesn't come as much surprise (it was on the cover) but still manages to pull few hearts strings. I'm glad we're almost done, but I do wonder how you follow on something like this? I know very few stories about post-zombie apocalypse.

That is indeed a mystery to explore with gritted awkward teeth.

8 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

It's okay happens...more often than I would like, but this time it was harmless

What happens now?

7 hours ago, Wraith said:

The Sonic-light issues are my favorite ones in this arc.  

  Hide contents

This establishes that he's still more human than machine at the end of the day. 

 

Or Mobian.

3 hours ago, Big Panda said:

Here’s a complaint I have that doesn’t involve at the actual story content:

 

  Hide contents

 

To start, I just want to say the overall colour scheme they’ve now switched to for these pages (as well as the letters pages) are just plain ugly imo. The colours and graphics they used for the first 24 issues were way better.

Secondly, I gotta be honest in saying I just really don’t like the way IDW do their recap pages for these comics.

I wish they could just adopt Archie’s version:

 

Not only does Archie’s look nicer, it also catches the reader up on what they need to know and introduce the major characters in the space of a single page.

IDW’s method of putting together select panels from previous issues without much more context, and the fact they have to devote an entire page to roll calling every character in the story rather than just covering the vital ones just doesn’t work as well for me.

Yeah, that is a fair loss of useful space.

2 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Few theories how this arc will go:

  Hide contents

1 Only Core Cast will be included in finale.
Cream and Gemerl aren't coming home. That makes me think Espio, Whisper, Silver and Rouges will also not return to Angel Island for one reason or the other, keeping the actual finale a bit tighter.
And I wondered how they squeeze all Zeti in small space, which leads me to follow up theory: one of the groups will fail. Probably Babylon Rouges. Chaos Emerald will still get to Angel Island, but to Zavok's hand. (And Zor might use his weird power to close the portal, with Silver barely pushing Emerald in time).

 

Hm...interesting.

2 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Spoiler

2 Zombot Touch
If you look closely at Zeena right after Cream took her Emerald, you can see stains of the virus. That's cool detail that apparently Cream already infected her, but it's not used to full potential.
Imagine how badass would be if Cream intentionally touches the Zombots, to use that to defeat Zeena.
Shame that  didn't happened, but something tells me Flynn didn't missed that opportunity. Keep in mind Espio is one of his favorite, went solo and "already has tactic in mind". He could get infected, touch Zazz and then use his ninja training to keep himself aware just long enough to get emerald to safety. Also, that would allow him to join Vector and Charmy, a bittersweet reunion.

 

Oh yeah, that is brutal.

Nice find!

24 minutes ago, StaticMania said:

So...Cream is like...the 3rd character to have spindashed in this comic.

I'm glad since she doesn't usually fight at all, but especially not without Cheese...I legit wondered what she would've really done there.

So that's cool.

Who was the second again?

I also like how it was a natural extension of both what Gemerl told her to do and game logic.

[MetalSkulkBane]

8 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Say, what kinda haiku is that?

 "Zeena is nice misspelling of place filled with sand and water."

I meant she's a "beach". Come on, that was easy.

[Dr. Detective]

I just got Issue 27 and if there was ever a guy to make me feel for Cream the Rabbit, it's Ian. The man is just really good at selling me on everybody, even characters I'm mostly just okay with.

I mean, I'm already the kind of guy whose barometer goes from "I love this character" to "This character is okay" as far as the main cast goes. Since there's no one I hate that helps push me towards caring a lot easier than most others but that isn't to take away from the work done to sell the emotional punch the ending had. I really like this approach to fights where it's less about pulling off fancy moves and more about either being clever, like in Tails and Amy's case, or just putting all the weight on the emotional core of what's happening and ending it with an extremely well-done pay-off. It does really well to sell me on the enemy's defeat while utilizing such a limited space. 

Next time is, based on the covers, Espio Vs. Zazz and Silver and Whisper Vs. Zor. I don't know how the situation with Master Zik is going to clear up. I would hope Issue 29's focus would solely be on Zavok but if it's not, Ian's got a real challenge ahead of him for this finale. He's done really well so far in this final stretch so I can only hope it continues. 

 

Spoiler

I also really like how both Cream and Charmy, two 6-year-old children, both got infected by basically trying to do similar things. Going against being told to stay back in a bid to try and be heroic. These children are certainly braver than I.

 

[DabigRG]

17 minutes ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

 "Zeena is nice misspelling of place filled with sand and water."

I meant she's a "beach". Come on, that was easy.

Oh, sneaky-deeky there!  

I thought you just horribly misspelled/omitted something.

[Razule]

24 minutes ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

 "Zeena is nice misspelling of place filled with sand and water."

I meant she's a "beach". Come on, that was easy.

I suppose she is a sandy person.

[StaticMania]

1 hour ago, DabigRG said:

Who was the second again?

Shadow of course.

[Sonictrainer]

Not sure if this was mentioned, but does anyone notice that some of the Zombots on the A Cover look like the Substitute Freedom Fighters?

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, Sonictrainer said:

Not sure if this was mentioned, but does anyone notice that some of the Zombots on the A Cover look like the Substitute Freedom Fighters?

Not them specifically, but yeah, I caught hints of Archie again.

[Big Panda]

Lamar Wells has done that a lot with his covers. You can also see a few familiar-looking zombots on his issue 19 cover.

[Meta77]

Each issue and they continue to excite me more than anything archie did in its final arcs. I have not had this much fun since early knuckles comic arcs

[Red Hot Jack]

I honestly do not blame "Panic in the Sky" for being a bad final arc because of writing, but because it was... underwhelming as a storyline, you had the glorified cameos by the worlds population, but still, you knew exactly what to expect, because that story was an Unleashed adaptation, it was just an excuse to re-tell the story and explore the rebooted world to build it up, which wasn't too bad, but neither exciting. That's the thing with the reboot, almost 40 issues of cool build up and hardly any meat in it, okay it was cancelled right after that but why wait for 40 issues?

In IDW, we are getting not adaptations, but rather storylines that are "game-plausible" but still new, they pay homage and reference certain aspects of the games (Heroes, Lost World, Forces) but still tell new tales, plus we have Ian's delicious in-depth writing for each character, ironically (aside from a couple of cases) we have more depth, growth, tension, and unexpected twists here than in Archie reboot that had a lot more freedom because the team wasn't working as closely with Sega.

The thing about mandates... I have no idea how they work, SEGA let Shadow be turned into a Zombot rather than act like a person, we'll see what happens in the final issue of this saga where he returns... still, I would say there is plenty of freedom they are giving the IDW team.

"All or Nothing" is a blast so far, the pacing always has bits of issues here and there, but there is a lot of meat in #27, action and drama, it's exactly what I wanted.

[SBR2]

Wait...people don't like Panic in the Sky? I thought it was a blast and honestly ended the Archie book on a really touching a good note. Then again I'm the weirdo who finds Post-Reboot Archie superior to pre-reboot Archie in every conceivable way.

[MetalSkulkBane]

On 3/26/2020 at 2:18 PM, SBR2 said:

Wait...people don't like Panic in the Sky? I thought it was a blast and honestly ended the Archie book on a really touching a good note.

For me "Panic in the Sky" promised too much, gave too little.

Part 1: Woo Skelly, Little party and BAM, Tails Doll and Phage. And Armada. And Hooligans. And Metal Vs Gemerl and Nigel and OMG, so much, this arc will be sweeeeet.

Part 2: Aaaand pause. Take a break people, more talking. Even though we wasted part 0 on talking. All of the villains from previous issue? Gone,  save for 1 page for Cream vs Fang. Yaaay, whole 1 page. And all those side FF groups we build it up in part 0? Bloody useless, aren't you glad we wasted so much time explaining plan that won't come into action? (You know, I can stomach "first set up dialogue, then action" outline. But why put exposition IN MIDDLE of fast paced adrenaline pumping action? That's beyond my comprehension).

Part 3: Now we split team in 3 groups, so Sonic can save the day and rest pretend they doing something important. Because they don't. Like remember when Sally utterly failed against E-100 series without Sonic? She's getting a rematch, chance to prove she still got and... they turn off on their own.

Part 4 (and little of 3): So what are we left with? Mostly bare-bone adaptation of Unleashed with zero surprises left. And fight with Egg Dragoon kinda holds up, but nor part 4: Yardley's art looks fine... until he draws Colossus or Dark Gaia. They look like McDonald toys. It's especially jarring after Skelly and A.B. Thomas art.
And it's not like emotional stuff can really work, it all hinges on Chip's bonds with everyone he meet, which really isn't that strong. When Flynn adapts 8-bit Mega Man he can easily adds to emotions, but HD game like Unleashed with little alterations Flynn can only repeat, with mixed results.

[DabigRG]

Chip was another peculiar case of mandates regarding how he was used, not being allowed to be in the tie-in backup story and there apparently being limits to how much they can show him alongside (certain?) other characters in the actual Unleashed adaptation. It's been a while though, so I don't know if there was anything more concrete said about it.