Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[Sonictrainer]

9 hours ago, SanPolo4389 said:

 

In today's weather forecast, I predict a 100% chance of thunderstorms in Professor Starline's future.

[Silvereyes]

IS#3 is out on Amazon now. Overall, I enjoyed it. Some very interesting developments that I think could wind up being important in the future. Mainly

Spoiler

that Surge and Kit were people before Starline got to them. Maybe I'm being an idiot but I assumed he made them from scratch, not that they were Mobians enhanced with cybernetics. Seems like a future potential plot would be for them to find out their backstories.

Think it was a bit anti-climatic how Surge and Kit found out. I mean it makes sense but it does feel like we missed a page or two by starting the issue with them already on the computer. Clever way to integrate the Starline monologues into the plot though.

I like Surge and Kit's plan. Think it is clever of them to use Starline in such a way. And I think it is nice that even though they now know they have been brainwashed, that knowledge hasn't really affected their brainwashing too much. I think when Surge finally sees Sonic, something primal is going to kick in, and it seems Kit really has no choice but to follow Surge to the end of the Earth/Mobius. Guess we'll see if Surge ever treats him better.

Just 3 issues left. I'm getting hyped. Hope the Sonic 2 tie-in is good.

Also in terms of easter eggs, I noticed that

Spoiler

Kit gets drowned in the infamous room of Chemical Plant Zone. There's a page with Surge hitting a pole of some sort, I don't know if that is referencing something?

 

[MetalSkulkBane]

Imposter Syndrome #3

Good read. If I don't sound exited, it's becuase whole thing is dragging too much with constant changes to main book. But comic is really satysfying.

Art by Mr Roth (apologies, his full name is too long) is still great. he makes some great faces and dramatic action panels. It seems a liiitle rougher than in previous 2 issues, but I can't put in words how.

Also, there was pic of Shadow, I wonder if it means anything or just general "Starline researched all"

As for the plot, I'm starting to wonder if Kit and Surge are "Infinite done right"

Spoiler

As we all seen it coming, Starline's plan falls to ruin. Although he mentioned only he can "maintain your enchantments". If this isn't a lie it may mean those two will be stuck with him.

But we finally learn what Surge plans now and that's interesting. I'm seeing some resemblance to Infinite. He also wanted to see the world burn and show he's the strongest, even a person before joining Eggman and being re-made in his lab (I THINK that's what Forces implies anyway).
Only difference is that Imposters have personality, understandable motivation and actually plan to fulfill their goal, rather than being good underlings.

Side note, Kit really quickly agreed with Surge's plan. This is first time he gets a little creepy and I won't be surprised if there will be more in future.

Lastly only now I realized that Kit is water elemental and Surge has electric powers meaning she can really easily hurt him, even by accident. I wonder if (more realistically "when") this will happen.

 

But yeah, good stuff. I can't wait for climax already, but good stuff.

[fluffers]

Okay so a general timeline of events is

Spoiler

Starline kidnaps 'surge' and 'kit' and proceeds to erase everything about their previous life they knew. Also no backups cause who they were doesn't matter to him.

Starline then insert his prototype Frame into the bodies of Kitsunami and Surge to make them cybernetically enhanced

Using  procured ingredients (including tails DNA and the power cores) he has Surge and Kit  emulate the abilities of Starline's foes (Unsure if Sonic, Shadow and Neo Sonic are there as examples of his adversaries or examples of ingredients he obtained or both)

Then because Starline wants to make a better Metal/Sonic/Shadow/Tails he adds extra abilities on top of the similar ones of the original (external support in Kit's case and Electromagnetism in Surge's)

He then Installs the malleable programmed personalities based on Belle's code and thus made Surge obsessed with killing sonic and Kit obsessed with Surge 

And to ensure that they wouldn't go rogue he built in a fail safe application in the form of increased susceptibility to hypnosis.

And those are basically his intended features, however going into actual field tests Starline discovers that his 'projects' aren't up to snuff enough even with their enhanced phisiology so he applies a metal virus variant to ensure their revival as they repeatedly keep dying in his tests

and lastly on top of that his built in failsafe has basically fractured their mental state a lot more than it normally would be. Even ignoring the fact that he's basically given them no purpose beyond his desired objective for the both of them.

It's a wonder they didn't Gero him. He's real lucky Kitsunami seems to have a bit of flair for the theatrics.

[CertifiedNobody]

I only have one thing to say about this story.

Spoiler

I'm really glad to see Surge and Kit aren't turning good. I hope we do eventually get some insight into their past and true names, but for now I think it's a good motivation to keep them on the villains list.

 

[Arcade Racer CC14]

Speaking of Imposter Syndrome, the trades for both it (love the cover choice) and the recent crop of main series issues are now up for pre-order on Amazon. Volume 12 is coming September 13th while IS is hitting October 11th.

[Kuzu]

Ian really wasn't kidding when he said this was just the Android arc huh. 

Spoiler

Ya know, I initially figured this issue would be about specifically finding any records of their past, but they basically just cut out the middleman and made their discovery the entire issue. If anyone didn't notice, the entire issue is spent in that one room.

Anyway, this was pretty good, probably the best issue of the whole Mini-series so far; we finally know what the deal is with Surge and Kit, and we get more information on their goals and motivations. I could nitpick and say it's a bit too similar to Shadow and Infinite (Artificial weapons created who just wanna watch the world burn as a result of the trauma inflicted on them) but I don't actually have a problem with that; their personalities are very distinct from them, and I actually give a shit about this duo unlike Infinite. Could see an interesting scenario where they're basically foils for Shadow. 

Starline fucked around and found out, but we knew that was gonna happen. I'm actually taken kind of aback at how blasé he is about kidnapping and brainwashing two people; homie is just casually sipping a cup as he brainwashes Kit. He may be similar to Eggman, but he's a special kind of asshole. Can't really say I feel bad if Surge and Kit get rid of him.

Well, all that's left is the confrontation with Sonic and Eggman; kind of curious how that's gonna play out.

 

[Dr. Detective]

It's so insanely fucked up. I couldn't imagine just being kidnapped and having the trajectory of my life forcefully pivoted like that. Currently it's also a good choice to not reveal what their pasts were because it really makes it worse in your mind. Even though they're making their own choices now it still kind of feels like they were forced to be villains. That said, I'm glad this is the direction they seem to be going. I love myself a nice "Fuck everyone" mentality in my adversaries. I also think kid villains are adorable so evil Kit with his mastermind, narrow-eyed scheming was great. It seems about as close as I'll get to another Evil Tails again.  I can't wait to see them face off with Sonic and Tails proper. 

[Johnny Boy]

33 minutes ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

It's so insanely fucked up. I couldn't imagine just being kidnapped and having the trajectory of my life forcefully pivoted like that. Currently it's also a good choice to not reveal what their pasts were because it really makes it worse in your mind. Even though they're making their own choices now it still kind of feels like they were forced to be villains. That said, I'm glad this is the direction they seem to be going. I love myself a nice "Fuck everyone" mentality in my adversaries. I also think kid villains are adorable so evil Kit with his mastermind, narrow-eyed scheming was great. It seems about as close as I'll get to another Evil Tails again.  I can't wait to see them face off with Sonic and Tails proper. 

I really love these two.

Spoiler

And thank God they show no signs of turning good. The more villains we add to the rogues gallery the better!

 

[fluffers]

Spoiler

It's interesting that in his strive to break the cycle, Starline has created weapons whose goal is to go beyond that and burn it all down.

 

 

[PC the Hedgehog]

21 hours ago, Silvereyes said:

Also in terms of easter eggs, I noticed that

  Hide contents

Kit gets drowned in the infamous room of Chemical Plant Zone. There's a page with Surge hitting a pole of some sort, I don't know if that is referencing something?

Spoiler

It looked to me like she was throttling a Toxomister from Sonic 3.

Also, in the background in one panel, you can see the giant Eggman robot from the end of Sonic Advance 2.

 

[TheNerdyKMT]

Honestly, I'm loving this arc, and I can't wait to see the payoff! Although, as interesting the inevitable clash with Sonic & Tails will be...I kinda want to see them fight Shadow & Omega. 4 living weapons, duking it out!

7 minutes ago, TheNerdyKMT said:

Honestly, I'm loving this arc, and I can't wait to see the payoff! Although, as interesting the inevitable clash with Sonic & Tails will be...I kinda want to see them fight Shadow & Omega. 4 living weapons, duking it out!

Better yet, I'd love to see them fight Blaze too! An elemental showdown!

[Red Hot Jack]

Haven't shared my thoughts on the issue, I re-read it yesterday so, here I go.

I'm actually surprised by how good it was because they are literally sitting in a room the entire issue, not much happened in this miniseries because it's all an introduction for these 2 and lots of tests, but this was sooo good even though it was sort of a bottle episode.

So, I wonder what SEGA changed because it's really a solid story, yeah yeah... DBZ rip-off, whatever, I still love it. This is the kind of origin story I want from Sonic comics.

Starline is such a bitch, 

Spoiler

If Surge and Kit succeed, I hope they really kill him off, but would SEGA and IDW and Ian have the balls to do that? He is such a big character in the comics, it would be a high risk but I would personally love it. Give me karma for the bitch.

I am also very curious as to who exactly were Surge and Kit before, Surge seems very pissed about the "no past" thing, Kit... I noticed had a lot less hypnosis sessions than Surge, uhm...

The designs make it look like they were very different people who probably got kidnapped, especially Surge, anyway, I hope we find out but I highly doubt they will go back to their old personas, they just can't, it's too late for that.

I also love how they are real villains, their plan works, make them go through with it. They should be the main villains of the arc, not Starline.

Now this is the kind of "evil versions" of the heroes I can get behind, even Stalrine/Eggman is a cool parallel, they are the glitch trio, yeah, I already liked the evil doppelgangers in Archie, especially Scourge who had a lot of personality IMO, but I like this more, even just the fact that Surge is a female speedster based off Android 18, and Kit's interesting powers and concept name. They are just well done all around.

Now make them clash with Sonic and Tails and Eggman already. Also, bring back Metal Sonic and Knuckles for the arc.

[Johnny Boy]

8 hours ago, Red Hot Jack said:

Haven't shared my thoughts on the issue, I re-read it yesterday so, here I go.

I'm actually surprised by how good it was because they are literally sitting in a room the entire issue, not much happened in this miniseries because it's all an introduction for these 2 and lots of tests, but this was sooo good even though it was sort of a bottle episode.

So, I wonder what SEGA changed because it's really a solid story, yeah yeah... DBZ rip-off, whatever, I still love it. This is the kind of origin story I want from Sonic comics.

Starline is such a bitch, 

  Hide contents

If Surge and Kit succeed, I hope they really kill him off, but would SEGA and IDW and Ian have the balls to do that? He is such a big character in the comics, it would be a high risk but I would personally love it. Give me karma for the bitch.

I am also very curious as to who exactly were Surge and Kit before, Surge seems very pissed about the "no past" thing, Kit... I noticed had a lot less hypnosis sessions than Surge, uhm...

The designs make it look like they were very different people who probably got kidnapped, especially Surge, anyway, I hope we find out but I highly doubt they will go back to their old personas, they just can't, it's too late for that.

I also love how they are real villains, their plan works, make them go through with it. They should be the main villains of the arc, not Starline.

Now this is the kind of "evil versions" of the heroes I can get behind, even Stalrine/Eggman is a cool parallel, they are the glitch trio, yeah, I already liked the evil doppelgangers in Archie, especially Scourge who had a lot of personality IMO, but I like this more, even just the fact that Surge is a female speedster based off Android 18, and Kit's interesting powers and concept name. They are just well done all around.

Now make them clash with Sonic and Tails and Eggman already. Also, bring back Metal Sonic and Knuckles for the arc.

Well the mandates say that game characters can’t get killed off but characters that were specifically created for the comics are more or less fair game. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Starline gets Dr. Gero’d. It would be extremely well deserved.

[CertifiedNobody]

55 minutes ago, Johnny Boy said:

Well the mandates say that game characters can’t get killed off but characters that were specifically created for the comics are more or less fair game. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Starline gets Dr. Gero’d. It would be extremely well deserved.

We can't kill off any villains until we have at least as many villains as there are heroes

[Razule]

Starline is the biggest non-Eggman villain we have right now.. killing him off this early would be a loss. We need more.

[Johnny Boy]

Speaking of villains, anyone think it’s time we have a major magic based villain since we already have a couple of science based ones?

[Kuzu]

Starline is the most influential villain in the book after Eggman, it'd be a huge waste to just kill him off after an entire year of buildup for him. Not to mention, you're thinning an already small roster of villains. Keep him around for a bit.

 

Spoiler

Obviously Surge and Kit aren't gonna succeed at their plans. So it just remains to be seen how they lose and where they go from there. 

 

Starline noted that making them susceptible to his brainwashing has made them somewhat mentally unstable as a result, so they'll probably just lose control and thwart their own plans. 

 

[CertifiedNobody]

11 minutes ago, Johnny Boy said:

Speaking of villains, anyone think it’s time we have a major magic based villain since we already have a couple of science based ones?

If Classic content wasn't banned from the main book, I'd love to see a revamped Heavy Magician. An IDW replacment for Naugus would be good too. I wouldn't expect to see much of that though considering how minimal of a role magic has in the franchise. The only time it's been used were the Storybook games.

[Johnny Boy]

7 minutes ago, CertifiedNobody said:

If Classic content wasn't banned from the main book, I'd love to see a revamped Heavy Magician. An IDW replacment for Naugus would be good too. I wouldn't expect to see much of that though considering how minimal of a role magic has in the franchise. The only time it's been used were the Storybook games.

A naugus replacement would be cool. I think a dragon would be the perfect candidate for that. Or maybe even a griffin.

[SkyHorizon]

15 hours ago, Kuzu said:

Spoiler

Starline noted that making them susceptible to his brainwashing has made them somewhat mentally unstable as a result, so they'll probably just lose control and thwart their own plans. 

 

I read it the opposite way, actually. Starline said: "An unforeseen necessity for the hypnotic vulnerability has been dealing with the psychological trauma" which I interpreted as: "I had to deal with psychological trauma (due to overtesting them to near-death situations) and I did it using the built-in hypnotic vulnerability".

Can someone confirm this interpretation?

[Red Hot Jack]

16 hours ago, Kuzu said:

Starline is the most influential villain in the book after Eggman, it'd be a huge waste to just kill him off after an entire year of buildup for him. Not to mention, you're thinning an already small roster of villains. Keep him around for a bit.

 

  Hide contents

Obviously Surge and Kit aren't gonna succeed at their plans. So it just remains to be seen how they lose and where they go from there. 

 

Starline noted that making them susceptible to his brainwashing has made them somewhat mentally unstable as a result, so they'll probably just lose control and thwart their own plans. 

 

It is not a waste if they used him well. Starline has been nearly in every plot in the book, almost 50 issues and starred in 2 miniseries, one annual, so if anything they used him too much. His introduction was bringing Eggman back to his glory, then being his sidekick, then he became disillusioned of him and tried to backstab him in order to correct his plan, got thrown away by Eggman, led a team of his own bad guys, made his tricore, gathered all the ingridients for his 2 new experiments, kidnapped Belle and became a main independent antagonist. Now he stars again as the "creator" of Surge and Kit.

Starline has done enough as a character for his arc, and service for the plot. Perhaps he deserves a bad ending for the things he did, and it could be time to have new characters to shine in the book, both heroes and villains.

I am not saying to kill him off now, it's still early but when the time comes and they can't milk him forever.

It would be a huge risk since he is a major character... yes. Would I like it? Yeah.

[CertifiedNobody]

2 hours ago, Red Hot Jack said:

It is not a waste if they used him well. Starline has been nearly in every plot in the book, almost 50 issues and starred in 2 miniseries, one annual, so if anything they used him too much. His introduction was bringing Eggman back to his glory, then being his sidekick, then he became disillusioned of him and tried to backstab him in order to correct his plan, got thrown away by Eggman, led a team of his own bad guys, made his tricore, gathered all the ingridients for his 2 new experiments, kidnapped Belle and became a main independent antagonist. Now he stars again as the "creator" of Surge and Kit.

Starline has done enough as a character for his arc, and service for the plot. Perhaps he deserves a bad ending for the things he did, and it could be time to have new characters to shine in the book, both heroes and villains.

I am not saying to kill him off now, it's still early but when the time comes and they can't milk him forever.

It would be a huge risk since he is a major character... yes. Would I like it? Yeah.

I think it's unlikely he'd be allowed to be killed. Sega probably wants to keep these comic characters around so that they have the option to integrate them into the game universe and other media. Starline's a really popular character and when I asked about merch for him  on one of the Sonic official livestreams, they said it might happen since he's been such a big character in the comics.

[Kuzu]

3 hours ago, Red Hot Jack said:

It is not a waste if they used him well. Starline has been nearly in every plot in the book, almost 50 issues and starred in 2 miniseries, one annual, so if anything they used him too much. His introduction was bringing Eggman back to his glory, then being his sidekick, then he became disillusioned of him and tried to backstab him in order to correct his plan, got thrown away by Eggman, led a team of his own bad guys, made his tricore, gathered all the ingridients for his 2 new experiments, kidnapped Belle and became a main independent antagonist. Now he stars again as the "creator" of Surge and Kit.

Starline has done enough as a character for his arc, and service for the plot. Perhaps he deserves a bad ending for the things he did, and it could be time to have new characters to shine in the book, both heroes and villains.

I am not saying to kill him off now, it's still early but when the time comes and they can't milk him forever.

It would be a huge risk since he is a major character... yes. Would I like it? Yeah.

I don't think you really understand how big of a hole not having Starline around would create. If you get rid of Starline, this is what the line up of non-Eggman villains looks like;

The Deadly Six just had an arc about them and the ending to it means they aren't gonna be around for a while....hopefully.

Rough/Tumble: Too simplistic and confirmed by the author to be fodder for the heroes. Plus I don't give a fuck about them.

Mimic is Whisper's personal enemy and has no real connection with any other cast member, plus he hasn't really done anything of note ever sense the end of his debut arc and he took a backseat to Starline and Zavok in Bad Guys.

Clutch like Mimic is pretty underdeveloped right now, and his goals are micro level; he just wants to run his underground empire.

Surge/Kit: Probably the best developed villains after Starline, but even then their goals are still too simple, even as of IS#3. They just wanna fuck shit up and that's it, cool designs and very developed characters but not very good goals for a long term enemy besides the occasional bout with Sonic.

 

 

I understand Starline has been somewhat overexposed...but how is killing him fixing that???? When you can just push him to the side after his arc is over and move on to someone else? 

 

I can never understand this mindset that because a character is overexposed they have to be killed off and therefore remove any further potential from them. It's the same logic that gets used when disgruntled Shadow haters insist that he should have died in SA2, and it's still just as dumb.

Killing off characters you don't like or care for is a permanent solution to a temporary problem that can easily be fixed in other ways.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

10 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

Killing off characters you don't like or care for is a permanent solution to a temporary problem that can easily be fixed in other ways.

It not even a solution either. It’s a case of not fixing what’s broken, and it still amazes me how long this fandom keeps hold of old habits like that.

The D6, for example, are among my most hated in the franchise, and yet as much as I wouldn’t be bothered to never see them again I would much rather see them improved so that I can like them—which they’ve ironically done when they appear in places other than the games.

In Starline’s case, once all this is done, you can just put him in the shadows for a while and give room for the other villains to grow.