Megathread IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog - Megathread

[Ryannumber1gamer]

 

Spoiler

THAT STARLINE BEATDOWN IS SO FREAKING SATSIFYING

 

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

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You just gotta love it when Eggman’s gives his eerie, Joker-esque smile.

 

[Kuzu]

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All of that buildup for him to lose in a single issue. Get this bozo out of here.

 

[Sega DogTagz]

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I was kinda looking forward to Eggman v Starline more than all the other fluff.

 

I feel kinda justified. Those panels are so good it should be Fattening.

 

[Kuzu]

Spoiler

Its kind of weird how the Eggman/Starline stuff, and the Tails/Kit stuff interested me more than the Sonic/Surge stuff.

 

[Darkvizardberrytan]

I do not care for spoilers someone just tell me did kit go good or is he still bad

[Razule]

On 6/24/2022 at 8:55 PM, Razule said:

No mention of Starline post #50 yet. Either he's out of commission or that next Bumblekast Q&A is in hell. 

Spoiler

Well, damn. RIP.. for now, at least. It's a comic, he'll be back if there's a story for him.

Was cool seeing Eggman toss him around like that without a mech or anything. 

 

[Kuzu]

39 minutes ago, Darkvizardberrytan said:

I do not care for spoilers someone just tell me did kit go good or is he still bad

Spoiler

Tails almost manages to talk him down but he's still programmed to serve Surge.

 

Kit runs out of Water and Tails turns him off, rendering him unconscious.

 

[Sega DogTagz]

Spoiler

For the record, this is why I love Flynn. God, the man writes a good Eggman.

 

And even though a lot of us were getting the feeling that Starline was overstaying his welcome and dominating the narrative a little bit, it nonetheless serves to make this page hit that much harder. All that focus on Starline makes this moment all the sweeter. It builds onto itself to give Eggy a character feat that he can stick on his big board right under some of the stuff that made him a legend in the Archie days.

 

[Red Hot Jack]

Oh, this was so worth the wait, excuse the hype but I feel satisfied, these issues really need their page time (this one is 42 pages which is over double the usual), I'm not sure if it was my favorite issue so far but it was incredible and one of my favorites at least.

Some arcs ended, some arcs started, it was both a conclusion and the start of a new saga as it was implied. Certainly up to the buildup.

Now for the spoilers.

Spoiler

I'm doing this in showdowns:

Sonic/Surge - I did think this was the most boring out of them, mostly because yeah action but still, Sonic's arc with his freedom of choice arc, it really culminated into this, I like how Sonic was convinced all the time, nothing can make him change his mind, it's part of his stubbornness. And Surge is presumed dead, which will give Kit an interesting route.

Tails/Kit - Tails played it very well and very careful, by making them look similar with the extra tail thing, I'm not sure if it worked, but Kit sounds really messed up more than a redeemed antagonist, obviously I wouldn't have liked it that way, but with Surge out of commission for now, he will stay on the heroes side for a while probably.

Eggman/Starline - I really don't think Starline was wasted, in fact it's my favorite arc of any original character here, the whole "I got the throne, I'm ruling with Eggman", the flashback and the confrontation was all a build up to this final moment. I loved how they fought in mechs, I loved the confrontation where Eggman literally kicked his ass, Eggman might be a child but he's just smarter than Starline, him being cruel also gives him an advantage. This is how I wanted it to end, Starline dead and Eggman gloats that he beat him. It's really the "rise and fall" of Dr. Starline, it was an awesome arc for him and ended perfectly, with karma since he was quite the bastard.

Belle/Metal Sonic - Also very good, better than Sonic and Tails fights, I love how Metal "saves" her, they save each other, and Belle stands up to Eggman with her declaration, her father is truly gone but her mission isn't. I'm not sure how fixing badniks can work, since Sonic busts them all the time, only for Belle to fix them, it's kinda redundant but it is meaningful for Belle's arc I suppose. Helping badniks is really her purpose, her only mission at this point, and yeah she doesn't bat an eye when Eggman recognises her efficiency and offers her the job, she just says hell no. Belle has grown a lot.

There were 8 characters but I feel like all of them had their big moment, with more pages for them to shine, unlike 25 which had nearly every character, this was more focused but really well done, I'm really satisfied with Belle and Starline's journeys.

[Kuzu]

Spoiler

Nobody actually believes Starline is actually dead right? This is a comic book

 

[Red Hot Jack]

Spoiler

Doesn't matter at this point, his arc is over, he was written out anyway with a strong ending. If he will return it won't be for a while.

Really, I thought that was a great ending, him returning immediately would undo what happened in this issue for me.

 

[Kuzu]

Spoiler

I'm not saying he's coming back any time soon, yea this is his end for now.

Just saying, he's written off in a way where he can clearly return.

 

[Indigo Rush]

@Dr. Mechanothat panel you posted earlier convinced me to avoid any other spoilers and buy the comic myself:

Spoiler

Spoiler

The part that got me the most curious is with Kit and Tails, and Kit's obsession with appeasing to Surge. It's very apparent that the duo are mentally damaged by Starline, and if he does manage to survive I wonder if this will set up a final confrontation between them?

 

[Kuzu]

Spoiler

By far the most interesting part was Kit starting to develop an ego separate from Surge. Its obvious he really doesn't want to be doing any of the stuff he's currently doing and is really just following Surge's lead.

 

And she's obviously too mentally damaged to be making any sound and rational judgments.

 

[Darkvizardberrytan]

Best Issue that I have read in years. The art was amazing and the fights while not long still good
 

Spoiler

1. Belle could become evil. Eggman asking if she interfaced with Metals Coding makes me think she is now cause of the way of both how he laughs and casually ask if she wants to work for him, and when she says no he is just like oh well till next time belle. He knows something

2. Kit is still evil but is more in the grey middle ground area. He likes that tails is interested in him. But Surge is needed to let him know what to do. He can be talked to casually if careful but if you try to get in the way of what Surge wants that is what makes him snap

3. Of course Surge is going to be mad when she gets out that hole

4. Do not think Starline is dead but is pretty broken from this lose. All that planning ruined in minutes

5. Why cant sega write Eggman like this in the games. Still somewhat goofy at times but otherwise sinister through and through.

 

[Wraith]

This might be IDW Sonic's best issue.

[Dr. Detective]

HOOOOOLYYYYY SHIIIIIIIIIIT!

THAT HAD TO BE ONE OF THE BEST SONIC THINGS I'VE EVER CONSUMED!

Spoiler

I was SO irrationally happy when Starline burst out of the ground in that Lost World mech to fight the Egg Emperor. I'm also happy that Eggman choosing the Egg Emperor granted him the victory. The Team Blast from the Tri-Core taking it out was amazing but the sequence of Eggman stomping the ground so hard it shattered while the dude was in that scary black silhouette was God-like. Then we get those precious reminders that as a Sonic character, Eggman is no normal human and can reasonably throw hands. Dude shattered Starline's physical and emotional self-worth by demolishing him into the ground!

AGH! It's perfect! It's honestly the perfect culmination of Starline's character and where all this self-actualization was leading him. The point behind the character and the tragedy behind the character is that for all his galivanting about how much smarter he is than his idol, the man he idolized got the way he is by being bigger and better. Eggman's resolve to go ALL OR NOTHING on a plan of his is what makes it so that he has the ability to be as large as he is with everything he does. He didn't FORGET to have a contingency plan for the Metal Virus. He CHOSE not to because he goes ALL IN and he's insane.

That same resolve that created the virus was the same one that had him take the Warp Topaz and come up with the equally risky plan that saved everyone. It's just how he rolls. 

Meanwhile, poor Kitsunami is an incredibly unhinged, insane, poor your lad who's mind is severely messed up. Seeing Tails recognize what he was all about and try to talk him down rather than fight was cute but it was also really sad. 

Sonic's fight with Surge was also really good but more so for what it said about their characters then anything. Surge's point about Sonic's moral compass was some nice food for thought but Sonic's resolve to be all about giving people the freedom to choose who they wish to be (including himself) makes for a very admirable counter. Agree or disagree, it's always better when you have an interestingly written character that's actually ABOUT something rather than a blank sheet of paper that only does good guy things just because.

And of course Belle being smooth in the way she handled Metal Sonic and approached Eggman was honestly her best showing to date. That scene alone elevated her quite a bit in my eyes. It was just so surprisingly direct.

I talked about everything in the order of hype it elicited from me as I was reading it. It was all very good though. I love CHAOS so much. This shit was chaotic as hell and it was glorious. I had my doubts it would be something to live up to the hype it was generating but that felt so goddamn good to read.

I NEED MORE!

So in conclusion, I love Sonic. Sonic is great. I'm happy I get constant, monthly reminders of how great and awesome Sonic can be. 

Fucking hell... I'm still excited. I need to find some other Sonic related thing to do right now. I'm jittery right now...

[Ryannumber1gamer]

 

Spoiler

I'm not gonna go on here and act like Starline's arc was saved because of this issue. I haven't read it yet, but I sincerely doubt it will happen. I'll still be annoyed how he hijacked arcs. I'll still be annoyed how he did the same shtick time and time again. I'll still be annoyed how his presence hurt several arcs.

but boy i am sure i'm gonna love seeing eggman make an absolute clown out of him, and that's exactly what happened from the pages I've seen from this issue.

 

[Wraith]

Spoiler

The most interesting thing about this issue to me is how the narrative around Sonic, Tails and Eggman that the imposters formed in their heads basically fell apart with first contact. Starline and Surge have the attitude and the ambition, but Sonic and Eggman brush them both aside handily with sheer experience and that shows that they actually have a long way to go if they want to change the status quo.

They have a lot of assumptions about how Sonic, Eggman and the world at large work that just don't match reality and...well, it costed them. This isn't to say that Sonic and Eggman are infallible but there's a reason they've both gotten this far. Sonic's commitment to freedom and redemption has earned him a lot of powerful allies and given him a lot of experience against types like Surge, which made it easy for him to get under her skin. Surge on the other hand completely fucking fails to get under Sonic's skin because he's seen all of this before. I didn't expect them to lean a little bit into the fact that this is like the third troubled-youth-turned-rival he's fought, but yeah. He isn't shaken by Surge at all and for good reason. He's seen her shtick a million times and come out on top every time.
 

And Starline was only half right about Eggman's planning skills. Eggman does get tunnel vision and rarely comes up with contingencies, but that doesn't mean he's incapable of doing that.  He can get plenty crafty when the chips are down. His thinking was too binary, and ironically, Starline's own tunnel vision lead him to be caught out when Eggman got the upper hand. 

I don't have much to say about Kit vs Tails even though it was probably the best of the three fights. I don't know why I didn't expect it to go in that direction but it makes sense. Tails immediately recognizing insecurities he used to have and getting to the root of them immediately shows a lot of growth on his part.

I'm actually kind of glad Imposter Syndrome went on for so long now. The long build up only for the characters to suffer such crushing defeats was weirdly cathartic? Like, they really didn't know shit about shit when you get down to it. It was really fun to have every character's flaws come to the surface like that. I guess the more interesting way to handle that would have been to have Sonic, Tails and Eggman have to work together to wrestle control back from them or something, but the thing is...that can still happen. Surge, Kit and Starline aren't going anywhere and I can see them learning from this whole thing and coming back stronger.

I haven't talked much about Belle's little segment, but that's because I don't think that story is over yet. Eggman's face lit up when she said she directly connected with Metal Sonic for a reason. She's about to be used against Sonic  and I'm pretty excited to find out how.

 

tldr I like these new characters and this issue a lot

[Mobotropolis]

Spoiler

Nice of them to remember Eggman's twice the size of a normal non-powered Sonic-person and can just toss them aside.

Also in the Don't Like Starline-camp, but that may be more because of his obnoxious fanboy personality which makes him a hard character to take seriously even in a world with an ensemble cast of ridiculous characters. So he achieved that, at least. 

 

[Soniman]

This issue was rock solid, I actually don’t have much to say already, good dialogue good characterization, good action, etc. Issue 50 really did live up to the hype

Spoiler

i will say I’m glad Sonic just sand bagged all the bullshit Surge was throwing at him, after mildly feeling guilty over the stuff with Eggman and the Metal Virus and standing firm in his beliefs when confronted by Zavok about them he pretty much had no reason to question his morals by some angry child he only just met, I like the explanation he gives her for WHY he does it to it just all makes so much sense. I went into this expecting a highly intense emotional battle of morality were sonic and surge clashed hard over their ideals so I was pleasantly surprised they choose a different outcome to that .

 

[MetalSkulkBane]

Sonic #50! Finally!!!

♪It's been a long, rough road
  And It's finally here
  It moved an inch forward
  Felt like a year ♫

Cough, sorry, don't know what came over me.

Anyway, it's great. Story great, artwork great, great great great. But let's go into little detail.

I guess the "weakest" part for me is Belle. I guess she's kind and resourceful and moving forward, etc. But with six bombastic personalities, she comes out kinda bland. (So is Metal, but that's not his story.)

I get that Evan wants to make her Tinker's legacy. But I'm not entirely sure there are enough badniks for her to fix. And what's the morality here? Do we treat basic badniks as living beings or objects? Because she either wants to brainwash them or Belle will be "rescuing" some toasters.

Rest in spoilers-ville

Spoiler

it looks like Belle got infected with something. I wanted to say 'gee, way to go, dummy" but then again, it became obvious only once Eggman pointed that, so whatever.
Tails/Kit really took me by surprise. I assumed there will, well, support units to the main fight. And that Tails will logically be no match to Kit. But he used his kindness (but also wits, he's not just Amy 2.0) to win this.

Surge and Sonic arguably could be argued to be disappointing but it works. As many pointed out Metal was beating the crap out of her so logically Sonic should do it even easier. And so he does. But art is still great and the discussion they have is so fun. I find it interesting that she wasn't as "cool" as in Imposter Syndrome. She was mostly angry. Which makes sense. She rrrreally tries to rationalize her decision to fight Sonic but in the end, she's just following the hypnosis programming. That's sad.

And then we have Eggman Vs Starline and the only word I can use is "satisfying". Immensely, immensely satisfying. I guess that answers our question about how Starline took over so easily. Because it lasted 10 minutes.
Considering that imposters will be back and Starline is finished (for now) I'm glad this part got the most pizzaz. And suddenly I'm a fan of Lost World's Final Boss mech (called.... Eggrobo? Ugh, Sega, whyyyy? Just call it Egg Baron or something). I had fun with Starly, but this is perfect way to remove him from the book.

 

Is it my favorite issue? Eeeh, it's close, but I think #24 still tops it. That thing hurt guys. But it doesn't change the fact that Sonic #50 is an amazing story.

Lastly, I'm leaving links to previous issues discussions for my future self.

Spoiler

Issue 01 Issue 02 Issue 03 Issue 04
Issue 05 Issue 06 Issue 07 Issue 08
Issue 09 Issue 10 Issue 11 Issue 12

Issue 13 Issue 14 Issue 15 Issue 16    Annual 2019
Issue 17 Issue 18 Issue 19 Issue 20    Tangle/Whisper: 1, 2, 3, 4
Issue 21 Issue 22 Issue 23 Issue 24

Issue 25 Issue 26 Issue 27 Issue 28     Annual 2020
Issue 29 Issue 30 Issue 31 Issue 32
Issue 33 Issue 34 Issue 35 Issue 36    Bad Guys 1, 2, 3, 4

Issue 37 Issue 38 Issue 39 Issue 40    30th Anniversary Special    FCBD '21
Issue 41 Issue 42 Issue 43 Issue 44    Sonic Movie 2 Prequel
Issue 45 Issue 46 Issue 47 Issue 48    Impostor Syndrome: 1, 2, 3, 4    FCBD '22
Issue 49 Issue 50

 

 

[Matdrac]

I don't know but if Dr. Starline reappears in the future, they already have an idea of what it will look like.

[A super No.1 washedupgamer]

I wonder if in the future, with the memory of them erased, if kit and surge come across someone that recognizes who they were before.