Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[dbzfan7]

If it ain't Tails it's like Shara or Chip or Caliburn. He's just the easiest to fill the role of someone for Sonic to talk to, and not steal his thunder in any way. So he more or less in most cases becomes the inoffensive character.

[Kuzu]

Tails fills like three distinct roles that can be used for any type of plotline; he's a foil to Sonic and compliments his personality without threatening his position as the protagonist, he's the tech guy who can make any gadget for whatever the plot demands and he's Sonic's protégé.

he's basically Krillin, Bulma and Gohan distilled into a single character lmao. Plays a distinct role but never feels like he's overstaying his welcome, so there's no reason for writers not to use him as Sonic's primary support character when he fills so many roles at once. Not even Shadow has that claim despite arguably being a more dynamic character.

Using Tails pretty much coincides with the franchise's "back to basics" approach and Tails is as basic as you can get as far as Sonic supporting characters are concerned.

[dbzfan7]

Amy is like the only other character who can kinda fill that spot partially. Knuckles and Shadow are too big to fill that spot and if they did people would probably hate them becoming second banana despite their stronger ability to stand on their own. It's probably why they got so much attention in the archie solo books as they were the strongest solo characters to carry stories.

I feel like there is a lot you can do with Tails to give him something interesting or character driven. Since Sonic himself is pretty basic and they want to really play it safe with him, anyone next to him is forced to be even safer or risk overshadowing the main character. Kind of a lose lose situation there. Kinda why it doesn't matter who you put next to Sonic if they'll want that second character to fill those specific roles. We had something kinda like that with Commander Knuckles and....yeeeesh. Shadow is now written as someone who would never consider doing such a role but man I'm kinda curious what it would be like if Shadow was given plot bitch/explain shit and go sit in the corner role haha.

[Kuzu]

Amy has never been given the same type of promotion as Tails, because her dynamic with Sonic is based around a joke; basically "haha girl likes guy who doesn't like her back". You could make an interesting dynamic from that, but no writer has ever explored it and Sega would probably veto it anyway for the sake of THE BRAND tm. 

 

Same with Knuckles really; him and Shadow could both occupy that role of two foils who can stand on equal footing with the main character, but the series has basically stopped trying to pretend Knuckles is anywhere near in the same league as Sonic or even Shadow, with almost all of his appearances downplaying his lore over just making him comic relief.

We can complain about Shadow's treatment, but he's still treated as second only to Sonic whenever he does show up nowadays and that's a distinction no other character has aside from the aforementioned Tails.

[dbzfan7]

I would say Amy hasn't really been that for a while. That was the original joke but they've for the most part move passed it and replaced it with...nothing really all that interesting. At most it's a severely watered down trait at this point probably because they went overboard with said joke to the point it became more annoying than charming. 

Shadow is the only other character who seems to be able to grab attention when he appears. He's a big a character where his presence can't be denied or sidelined. It is true Knuckles has been occasionally pushed into Sonic Sidekick 2. I feel like they could make anyone fill Tails role but would anyone even want that? His role is not exactly fun or interesting and feels kinda purposely bland.

We kinda saw what Commander Knuckles was like in a talking role and now I wonder what Shadow would be in a similar spot. Maybe he'd be like Perfect Cell from Xenoverse who just roasts Sonic abunch lol.

[Kuzu]

I don't think they're ever gonna do to Shadow what they did with Knuckles; even though he's not the central character anymore along with Sonic, he's at the very least, put above everyone that's not Sonic, Eggman, and occasionally Tails. He's either just behind them or in the same position as Tails depending on the story.  They seem to have settled on defaulting Shadow to Sonic's on and off ally, and that's a role he's been occupying for a while now and one that Sega has protected for the most part. 

To be honest, I think Tails` role is fine for what it is, it's just one writers never really explore because they probably feel there's not much to explore there. Whether that's true or not is subjective, but you get the idea. I do understand why they make characters like Chip, Shahra, or Caliburn who fill similar positions but have none of the baggage that Tails has. 

I feel like they only put Knuckles in the position he was in for Forces because he was a popular character and it was just simpler to do that than just make a new character regardless of how well Knuckles actually fit into the role. Its not a BAD idea, but one that really needed more context than what was given. Says a lot that the first IDW did was get him out of that role, but now he's right back to square one of being stuck on Angel Island and not really doing anything of consequence so lol. 

[dbzfan7]

I mostly joke when it comes to Shadow, but could you honestly imagine if they did. Like I said my only guess is just the equivalent of Xenoverse Cell who just roasts you a bunch. 

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, Kuzu said:

Amy has never been given the same type of promotion as Tails, because her dynamic with Sonic is based around a joke; basically "haha girl likes guy who doesn't like her back". You could make an interesting dynamic from that, but no writer has ever explored it and Sega would probably veto it anyway for the sake of THE BRAND tm. 

 

Same with Knuckles really; him and Shadow could both occupy that role of two foils who can stand on equal footing with the main character, but the series has basically stopped trying to pretend Knuckles is anywhere near in the same league as Sonic or even Shadow, with almost all of his appearances downplaying his lore over just making him comic relief.

We can complain about Shadow's treatment, but he's still treated as second only to Sonic whenever he does show up nowadays and that's a distinction no other character has aside from the aforementioned Tails.

All three of those characters generally suffered from either the interesting potential directions they had not panning out or being to context heavy to really work out, with SonicTeam's more specific notes further limiting what can be done with.

Amy went from a cute joke character to what they consciously pushed as becoming a heroine in her own right, but never really went anywhere due to a number of factors not coming into play for her. First of all, she never really had a personal rival or villain to fight against, instead going after Eggman like Sonic and having no dynamic or really interactions with him. Cream was conceived as a sidekick for her, but ended up introduced without her in an earlier game, had a [different] third wheel in her intended introduction that she had a more memorable rapport with, and ended up functioning more as a character without Amy's involvement outside of maybe Battle. And her having an unambiguous leading role arguably got subsumed by Blaze's introduction, who ended up having a bunch of significance behind her despite not featuring prominently in nearly as many games.

Knuckles had perhaps the steepest drop off of any character, starting as a foil for Sonic with his own history and motivations (a first for the series) that was naturally intertwined with what Sonic himself had already come across. This left the door open for expansion after wrapping his initial conflict up and could be pursued through a number of possibilities, which it sorta was doing in a variety of means. But in addition to lacking long term opposition in the games, he also lacks an actual arc to pursue despite having been around and changed a few amount in the games. And now he can't leave much at all.

We went over Shadow several times already, but he's both an exception due to actually having his character arc finished and yet way more restricted due in part to being difficult to make work outside of the era he helped define, which was big on deeper lore, uncovering mysteries, and greater evils to take down.

[CertifiedNobody]

#45 is out and... Well kind of underwhelming if I'm being honest, considering we haven't even seen any actual fire yet and we'll be waiting two months just to get a follow up on what currently feels like a filler arc.

The most notable thing to me was that the Forest Ridge Zone sign confirms that "Zones" are an in-universe term, something that I don't think we've seen prior to this in the comic.

 And don't think I'll miss that Sally Acorn reference.

[Kuzu]

4 hours ago, DabigRG said:

All three of those characters generally suffered from either the interesting potential directions they had not panning out or being to context heavy to really work out, with SonicTeam's more specific notes further limiting what can be done with.

Amy went from a cute joke character to what they consciously pushed as becoming a heroine in her own right, but never really went anywhere due to a number of factors not coming into play for her. First of all, she never really had a personal rival or villain to fight against, instead going after Eggman like Sonic and having no dynamic or really interactions with him. Cream was conceived as a sidekick for her, but ended up introduced without her in an earlier game, had a [different] third wheel in her intended introduction that she had a more memorable rapport with, and ended up functioning more as a character without Amy's involvement outside of maybe Battle. And her having an unambiguous leading role arguably got subsumed by Blaze's introduction, who ended up having a bunch of significance behind her despite not featuring prominently in nearly as many games.

Knuckles had perhaps the steepest drop off of any character, starting as a foil for Sonic with his own history and motivations (a first for the series) that was naturally intertwined with what Sonic himself had already come across. This left the door open for expansion after wrapping his initial conflict up and could be pursued through a number of possibilities, which it sorta was doing in a variety of means. But in addition to lacking long term opposition in the games, he also lacks an actual arc to pursue despite having been around and changed a few amount in the games. And now he can't leave much at all.

We went over Shadow several times already, but he's both an exception due to actually having his character arc finished and yet way more restricted due in part to being difficult to make work outside of the era he helped define, which was big on deeper lore, uncovering mysteries, and greater evils to take down.

Yea, its pretty unfortunate things turned out that way. Never really felt like the series was as interested in exploring them as other characters.

 

With Shadow, I think people find his change jarring; he started off as a much more dynamic character as you said, but that's  not compatible with the simpler direction Sega want the franchise to be, so they shifted Shadow's character to be more static and less all-consuming. That meant downplaying his entire story despite it being the foundation of his character.

But as you said, Shadow finished his story arc already and occupies a role no other character has as the protagonist's de facto rival; Amy or Knuckles either had no story to tell to begin with or in the latter's case, it ended before it even started and neither's position is as iron clad as the others (neither Amy or Knuckles offer much as a sidekick or rival respectively  compared to Tails and Shadow)

So they're kind of SOL and are only still relevant because of the Grandfather Clause of being Classic characters.

[MetalSkulkBane]

#45... I just accepted by now that I don't care for Stanley's writing.

Girls night out. I guess I wanted a low stakes character driven story. I kinda hoped it's gonna be "Chaos Racing", but whatever. So what if I don't care about Belle, or that much about Jewel either?

I still got Tangle and her infectious optimism... oh, she's kinda moody today. And whole issue just kinda lacks feeling of 'fun'. Girls don't really bond or anything. Sigh, well I have Amy.

Now sing with me, we all know the lyrics " "but it's only part 1 of 4, maybe it all will work out later"

But for now meh. Spoiler corner

Spoiler

Someone started a fire. Obviously we're suppose to blame Belle, but I suspect it's red herring. If fire started from here, she would burn first.

Mystery badnik. Knowing how this comic work I suspect Clutch has a hideout here. But there are many other possibilities.

I'll give that, no idea what was on the tarot card, other than "less than cheerful".

 

[Kuzu]

Yea I'm withholding my impressions until the entire arc is out. I'm not going down this constant rabbit hole of getting upset at a 1/4th of the story.

[MetalSkulkBane]

18 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

Yea I'm withholding my impressions until the entire arc is out. I'm not going down this constant rabbit hole of getting upset at a 1/4th of the story.

IDK, In many 4 parters I had best opinions of issue 1.

Part 1 only has to hype you for bigger story, get you interested.

Parts 2-3 have risk of middle child syndrome, seen as filler between the important bits.

Part 4 has to live up to months of expectations and often end up most rushed part of the story.

[Silvereyes]

Could be wrong, but I believe it was said that this was just going to be a 3 parter? The description for #47 says it is the final part of "Trial by Fire".

Anyway, I enjoyed it. Nice to see the 4 girls together, even if things aren't going very well in paradise. Whisper has left on her own, which is a pretty big deal I'd say, and presumably will lead into something else. I think the girls will bond once they start having to deal with this fire situation. Nothing too much else to say I suppose.

Apparently issue #46 is meant to be out in just 2 weeks, 27th October. Then Imposter Syndrome #1 on 17th November. Then #47 on 22nd December.

[Diogenes]

2 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

And whole issue just kinda lacks feeling of 'fun'. Girls don't really bond or anything.

Well that's the point, isn't it? Everyone's caught up in their problems but dealing with the fire will be something to rally around and they'll bond through that.

[Kuzu]

I'm amused how part of this arc is Jewel being jealous that her girlfriend is thinking about another woman.

[CertifiedNobody]

3 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

#45... I just accepted by now that I don't care for Stanley's writing.

She did great with Ghosts Of The Future, but I don't know if I'm satisfied with the direction she's been taking things so far.

[Kazhnuz]

I really liked it, it was fun. The introduction might have been a tad long but it was pretty fun and I like that they took time to introduce Tangle's current problem (and tease a possible future story ?)

And I need those tarot cards.

[CertifiedNobody]

38 minutes ago, Kazhnuz said:

And I need those tarot cards.

Future Sonic merch opportunity.

[Silvereyes]

6 hours ago, Kuzu said:

I'm amused how part of this arc is Jewel being jealous that her girlfriend is thinking about another woman.

Oh I think this issue and arc is going to be real shipping fuel.

6 hours ago, CertifiedNobody said:

She did great with Ghosts Of The Future, but I don't know if I'm satisfied with the direction she's been taking things so far.

Ghosts of the Future is very interesting. I definetly think there is some good writing there, especially with some pretty dark themes.

5 hours ago, Kazhnuz said:

And I need those tarot cards.

They'd be fun to have, although you'd have to censor or just omit some of them I imagine. No Hanged Man that's for sure, doubt they'd let you have Death either, or The Lovers. I just hope such a thing would use new artwork, rather than just reuse old images.

[CertifiedNobody]

1 hour ago, Silvereyes said:

Oh I think this issue and arc is going to be real shipping fuel.

I really haven't gotten any romantic/sexual vibes from any of the characters in the series yet.

[DabigRG]

Spoiler

Wasn't really interested in this story to begin with and it does in fact feel like filler except where nothing really happens. It's closer to what Year 3 was supposed to be for the moment, but it mostly lacks something of appropriate substance beyond two bits. Part of the indifference comes from almost none of these characters being interesting or anything beyond fine much of the time imo.

This is supposedly an Amy led story and she kinda does alright, but she also ironically connects the disinterest in how she doesn't have much of a connection or effect on any of these originals. Who, like it or not, make up most of what would intrigue for this particular focus. 

Still don't really care for Tangle that much, with her kinda being a distraction in this issue kinda being to blame. She's set up to get an action setpiece near the end of this--did she even get a Tarot card reading, btw?

The only characters[this chunk got deleted somehow, so cutting shirt] that are interesting are Whisper and Jewel--the former will hopefully get to do something on her own again and the latter is honestly my hope for this arc actually going somewhere.

 

On 10/12/2021 at 9:34 PM, Kuzu said:

Amy has never been given the same type of promotion as Tails, because her dynamic with Sonic is based around a joke; basically "haha girl likes guy who doesn't like her back". You could make an interesting dynamic from that, but no writer has ever explored it and Sega would probably veto it anyway for the sake of THE BRAND tm. 

 

Same with Knuckles really; him and Shadow could both occupy that role of two foils who can stand on equal footing with the main character, but the series has basically stopped trying to pretend Knuckles is anywhere near in the same league as Sonic or even Shadow, with almost all of his appearances downplaying his lore over just making him comic relief.

We can complain about Shadow's treatment, but he's still treated as second only to Sonic whenever he does show up nowadays and that's a distinction no other character has aside from the aforementioned Tails.

(Delete top quote)

 

Saw Issue 45. It was a-... thing.

I know a few things to come, but we can talk about that when relevant.

On 10/11/2021 at 4:40 PM, Sonictrainer said:

Jennifer Hernandez drew halloween art of Jewel & Whisper

https://m.imgur.com/M0pdNgR

10 hours ago, Kuzu said:

I'm amused how part of this arc is Jewel being jealous that her girlfriend is thinking about another woman.

Oh gee, is that supposed to be a thing?

10 hours ago, CertifiedNobody said:

She did great with Ghosts Of The Future, but I don't know if I'm satisfied with the direction she's been taking things so far.

Ghosts of the Future wasn't made with Sonic Team oversight.

[KoDaiko]

10 hours ago, CertifiedNobody said:

She did great with Ghosts Of The Future, but I don't know if I'm satisfied with the direction she's been taking things so far.

28 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Ghosts of the Future wasn't made with Sonic Team oversight.

Yeah GotF is very different from IDW. First one is a fancomic where she has all the freedom to do anything she wants (including changing/exploring the character's personality/trait/etc), the other is an officially licensed comic with guidelines on how to handle each character.

Although I wouldn't blame Sonic Team too much yet. There has been times where some plot points people had issue with were the writer's choices (like Sonic attacking Belle iirc. Or Belle's arc in general I guess?).

[Dejimon11]

Preview for the next issue 

Spoiler

 

Surge and Kit 

 

[CertifiedNobody]

59 minutes ago, DabigRG said:

Ghosts of the Future wasn't made with Sonic Team oversight.

Well the conversation wasn't really about the book's restrictions, just Evan's writing.

2 minutes ago, Dejimon11 said:

Preview for the next issue 

  Hide contents

 

Surge and Kit 

 

Ooh. I was expecting this to tie into Imposter Syndrome closer to the end. hopefully this means the book won't be dwelling on filler for long. Although, if Starline's "Bio-Badniks" are being shown here, does that mean Imposter Syndrome is going to start with them already active and just fill us in via flashbacks or something?