Sonic the Hedgehog's 900th Adventure - Reader Reaction & Review

[Sonictrainer]

Today, we experience Sonic's 900th Adventure

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Aaron Hammerstrom: happy release day to #IDWSonic Sonic's 900th Adventure!!

i got to contribute a story about Sonic, Blaze, and Cream! @Paincaked inked it!! @Loopyyylupe colored it!!

Sonic visits a new location as well as a few older ones you might recognize! check it out!!

 

We also have some concept art for one of Dr. Eggman's creations

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Deegeemin: Sonic's 900th Adventure is out TODAY!!! I had the honor of doing the art for @Danny8bit's super cool story and designing the new Eggman robot he came up with, The Egg Shogun Z! Here's some stuff about it! 1/???

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Danny's intention from the start was to have a Mazinger-esq robot and I drafted up some ideas trying to use Eggman's usual design language as well as all the refs he gave me! We ended up going for 5 and iterated! Thanks, @PPDPPL_art for feedback as well throughout all this! 2/???

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I came up with some rough colors and further made modifications to it after! We got the final body down pretty early on. There was more back-and-forth discussion on the head in particular trying to find the sweet spot! 3/???

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More head adjustments and me coming up with colors for the comic! I needed the shine for the brave perspective shot so it made sense to go with either 1 or 2. We ended up going for the middle palette since we already had some orange-ish colors in other stories 4/???

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Before all the designing I was also thinking of how I wanted to draw and render out the comic! The story was a bit different back then too! I had intentions of either going super rendered or something more reminiscent of Shin Getter Robo or Gurren Lagann  5/???

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I know I didn't mention all the design influences but if you were curious here it is! SO YEA I KNOW also looks a lot like Metal Robotnik but yea it's because a lot is pulled from there along with others! ???/6

I want to mention a big thank you to @blasphysics for handling the flatting so I could get things colored faster too!!! This project wouldn't be possible without all the people who offered feedback and help! 7/???

Not sure if there was anything else I missed but if I have any extra stuff I'll post it! In the meantime, it's back to work on the Winter Jam and other secret projects for me! I'll see you all again soon! : )

 

[MetalSkulkBane]

Eh, I expected a bit more from something with 900 in the title. Not sure what but not a flat story with one gimmick. Not everything is bad, but... let's break it down.

1 Sonic & Tails (by Ian Flynn)
Some okay banter, followed by a plot fueled by very weird logic.
How did that cave stabilize Topaz?
Can't Sonic just have someone to travel with him?
Why not send that gem into space?
Whatever. Tails doesn't get to do much, he's an exposition guy. Nothing special, except art by Adam Bryce Thomas is as always sweet.

2 Amy (by Evan Stanley)
That's actually pretty cute. Some good jokes, Amy is fun and standard action, good art by Stanley. But colors really elevate the story, very cool painting feel.

3 Knuckles & Metal (by Nigel Kitching)
And this is where things go down. Art by Fonseca is good (Metal looks really cool) but this isn't Kitching's at his best. Dude was good at writing Fleetway when he got to do big epics, his 6-7 pagers were... like this one. Sonic does one clever-ish thing and just wins. Metal puts no fight, Knuckles gets do to nothing.
I noticed Sonic is a bit jerkier in this one (being ass to Knuckles, faking "game over" to Tails), which I suspect is old habit from Sonic the Comic days. I don't mind too much, but it's annoying Knuckles is here for nothing. And I don't get why Metal prioritizes magic gem over killing Sonic. Everything is just a bit off.

4 Eggman (by Daniel Barnes)
Fine, this part kinda rules. Art by Min Ho Kim is amazing and the whole thing is just fun. I never knew I needed Cubot to quote Shadow from SA2, but this was comedy gold. (Surprised "big oof" returned. I wonder how Flynn feels about it).

5 Blaze & Cream (by Aaron Hammerstrom)
Art (also by Aaron) is still pretty awesome, with some nice environments. But story-wise it's just sightseeing, with one hot spot. Cream barely gets to do anything, Blaze ain't much better (but her casually blocking fire is badass).

6 Shadow, Rouge & Babylon Rouges (by Caleb Goellner)
Aaaand we're in the worst part. Which is the closest thing to the climax of the story. Yay.
Abby Bulmer is easily one of the weakest IDW artists. It's just flat, with nothing interesting going on.
Babylon Rouges are just mooks to beat up, with zero dignity. Feels like Rough & Tumble would fill their role better, but I guess this was Sega-focused.
Rouge is bhahahahaha.... happy to be present.
And finally Shadow. Dear lord, he escaped rehab again.
Not trusting Sonic with an important task is... fairly in character, not only in Prime. He pulled a similar thing in Olympic games. But dear chaos, he's being the biggest asshole about this, speaking in the weirdest way possible.
What might be even worse is that Sonic doesn't take him seriously (while Rouge looks embarrassed to be in the room). Shadow is a jerk, idiot AND a joke. He got demotion from "Vegeta at his worst" to "those bullies from Power Rangers". Yes, he punches Babylon Rouges, but it's at this point who cares?

In summary, a mixed bag, that for me feels like lesser than the sum of its parts. Normally I love seeing Sonic interact with his friends, but most writers don't know how to do them justice in only 6 pages. Art kiiiinda carries it, but not enough to live up to the hype. And Shadow bit... ughh, why? This might actually be worst Shadow ever.

[GentlemanX]

Yeah, having read this... this has got to be the one of the worst comics in IDW's run to be honest. Quality is all over the place in a not good way even compared to the annuals and unlike the other specials it feels like a whole lot of nothing 90% of the time.

The Sonic & Tails wrap around story looks great courtesy of ABT, but Flynn's more or less on autopilot the whole time. The first part is excusable for getting things started, but the ending is really underwhelming. If Sega saved the Warp Topaz following Metal Virus only to tell the IDW crew later "Eh, we've got nothing you can throw it away when you want", it's such a waste for its last appearance to be fluff like this.

Sonic & Amy fairs slightly better. Stanley's writing brings in the first references (this is more neutral than a plus, which I'll get into later) with the orca and Dragon Road but like the first story the real winner here is in the art department. Stanley's usual art, as has been stated, has a nice painted look to it like some of her cover art and that really helps the story stand out. Otherwise, a decent showcase of Sonic and Amy together but again nothing out of the ordinary beyond the circumstance.

Sonic & Knuckles/Metal Sonic is the only story I feel really gets at what this special should have been about. Artwork by Fonseca is nice but more importantly feels like a modern, on model STC story. Part of that is definitely Kitching's writing and potentially panel layout. Sonic and Tails' dialogue sticks out as do certain panels like Sonic holding the Warp Topaz. There are even some solid references to iconic STC moments like Sonic saying he'd never give up. A+ here.

Sonic & Eggman is definitely one of the better ones here in terms of getting the spirit of this setup. Min Ho Kim's artwork is wonderful as always and Barnes really does his best to represent the spirit of the special. The references here are all either from Modern material or the OVA, but the former are cute and the latter helps give the story some greater weight. Not as good as Kitching's due to the significance being from non-comic material, but better than everything else.

Sonic & Cream/Blaze is SegaSonic eye candy and to that effect it works. Hammerstrom knows how to make everyone feel in character and the art is probably the most Uekawa style you can get. That being said, there's pretty much nothing to this one outside of feeling like a Sonic Channel story and that's not what I'm here for. Like everything so far, looks pretty but writing is only competent and doesn't go beyond that.

*SIGH* And then we get to the last one. Why the Goellner story was approved let alone why it was last save the frame story I have no idea. The writing here is dreadful for pretty much everyone involved. Bad Sonic, bad Rouge, bad Babylon Rouges, and putrid Shadow. Bulmer's artwork doesn't help it, looking amateurish at best, but even if it had been someone like ABT it wouldn't have saved the writing. Shadow in particular seems to be a parody of himself rather than a celebration and I have no idea if that was done on purpose or not. As a story in an annual, it'd be bad. As part of the celebration of 900 English Sonic comics, it's inexcusable.

And that's the thing: this isn't a celebration of 900 English Sonic comics. Nothing besides the Kitching story and the cover by Elson even acknowledges that comics were done by anyone besides IDW. And yes, the references from Kitching come down to dialogue and matching tone and execution, but that's at least something. Ideally: yes, IDW would have been allowed to make deals with previous creatives to directly reference the Archie and Fleeway comics. Ideally: yes, Sega would have allowed the team to use character Sega already owns for those stories like Sally or Johnny. But you didn't need to do that, Kitching's story proves you didn't. If you had stories honoring the eras that came before with clever indirect references or matching the manner in which those stories were told this could have felt meaningful even without the keys to the kingdom when it comes to the ip in those old comics.

Part of that comes down to the creative team involved. As said, Kitching and Elson are the only two people on this project from STC and the only two people that hadn't already worked on IDW. Even among the old Archie team though, you have Mai Kiyotaki and Sandra Jo on the licensing end both of who only stared license managers at the tail end of World Unite, Evan and Ian writing with Evan also doing interior and exterior art, ABT doing both interior and exterior art, and you have Yardley, Herms, and Gray doing cover art. The oldest Archie veteran is Gray who's first work on the book was STH #134. Huge swaths of comic history aren't represented in any form be in in terms of characters, plots, references, or even celebrating the old creative teams. Ignoring the problems caused by Penders: was there any attempt at reaching out to any older Archie folks? Gallagher? Deceasare? Strom? Slott? Bollers? Manak? Mawhinney? Butler? Axer? Lim? Best? Fry? Spaziante??? Even some more artists post-Ian that haven't gotten as much work on IDW like Bates or Skelly would have been appreciated.

I wish everything here felt like Kitching's story. I wish I was seeing a bunch of people who either did work on the books back in the day given another day to shine or the next generation taking a break to pay tribute to those old eras by creating something that at least feels like it came before even if they were editorially mandated not to explicit reference them. But this feels like IDW, and a best, is a celebration of Sega Sonic material. If this had come out two years ago and was the 30th anniversary of issue of the whole Sonic brand rather than "Seasons of Chaos" that would have been fine. The last story would still have sucked but overall it would have been alright if a little underwhelming. But the "900th English Sonic comic"? During the 30th anniversaries of both Archie Sonic and Fleetway Sonic? Nah, this isn't it.

[King Scoopa Koopa]

On 9/13/2023 at 5:03 PM, MetalSkulkBane said:

(Surprised "big oof" returned. I wonder how Flynn feels about it).

What's this about?

Anyway, I enjoyed it. Such an odd milestone, though. Hopefully it was just a warm-up for when they reach 1000.

[MetalSkulkBane]

22 minutes ago, King Scoopa Koopa said:

What's this about?

 

Small meme,

 

When Sonic learned about Starline's death in #51 he said "Big Oof". And we don't see his face, so a lot of people interpreted it as Sonic being cold and unflinching about somebody dying, even if was Starline.

Flynn said that this wasn't his intention... but people found it funny, so now it's a low-tier meme.

[Red Hot Jack]

Amy 30th >>> 9000 adventure, easily.

Yeah, funnily enough I read 9000 immediately and waited this long to read Amy's comic, and guess which one was cooler.

This one was "just there", nice that they brought people who worked on Sonic comics before, I guess? But it's a really lame and boring one off, weird because usually these standalone stories are very good, and compared to Scrapnik miniseries, they used more characters and story elements like the topaz, but it sucked probably for this reason, they tried to cram as much zones and characters as possible without any clear ideas and plot, it's just fun interactions but lamer than usual to me. I do want more variety than "typical Sonic & Tails story", but this one was generic and dull, that one had a lot more complex stuff going on and awesome drawings.

[Trevor Culleton]

While this issue may not be the best, I reckon it's still a better issue to read than Sonic winter jam of course. It may be in a different reality, same as winter jam, but at least in that issue, Sonic's super speed made the blue hedgehog a success in what he does, which is more real than in reality shows, which are fake.

[Endoian]

Idk, the 900th could have been better, it's okay but it had many more things to take advantage of, since it is the 900th adventures special, which also includes the adventures of the Archies and fleetway, I would like to give more of my points, but it would be a lot of text, so I'll leave it at that I ask to have been better.