Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[Sparky]

Quick question: how would you guys feel if the colors writers wrote a sonic universe arc?

I'd hope it's the best thing ever.

 

And then I'd also wonder how the characters involved are portrayed.

[AuroraRedwinters]

Really if the ban/never to be used again list goes beyond just Penders characters, I admit I would be a bit sad to see Finitevius go. I really liked him as a character and thought he had a lot of potential. I really really hope he can somehow be salvaged as a character.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Really if the ban/never to be used again list goes beyond just Penders characters, I admit I would be a bit sad to see Finitevius go. I really liked him as a character and thought he had a lot of potential. I really really hope he can somehow be salvaged as a character.

Actualy, one of the things I thought would be cool is if he returned, and the Nocturnus finaly got greenlit for the comic, is if they got connected, and it turns out Finetivus was the true power behind them(and their leaders brother or something), but hey thats me

[Fletch]

Quick question: how would you guys feel if the colors writers wrote a sonic universe arc?

I would be really interested and hopeful. I can't help but wonder how all the characters used would be portrayed as Sparky above has said, but at the same time, I'm quite hopeful that the Colors writers would come up with a fun adventure that would be enjoyable.

[Eitarou]

Enerjak is probably the only Penders character I will miss to be honest. He was a very good villain. Knowing Ian will have big bads up his sleeve tho placated that feeling of loss almost instantly tho.

 

Don't worry. Enerjak will eventually make a cameo as a sports drink.

 

In all seriousness, I'll miss Enerjak, too. I just wonder what they'd be able to do with him even if they were allowed to use him. Super-powered echinda has been done enough already.

[Zaysho]

Quick question: how would you guys feel if the colors writers wrote a sonic universe arc?

 

No. Please, no. It's bad enough Pontac and Graff are basically the only ones writing the English scripts for the games, we don't need them mucking up the comic with their brand of "comedy" too. While I understand that they mostly work within restrictions set by SEGA, but considering they were given full rein of a Sonic story in Lost World, and given the end result, I'm not interested in seeing them on the comic (even though Lost World was subject to restrictions, the story was their own and they obviously didn't push to do more). Perhaps working on the comic would be less restrictive than working on a SEGA game, but I'm not convinced they have a good enough track record with anything Sonic at the moment, dub or otherwise.

 

To Pontac's credit at least, he wrote some good episodes of Generator Rex, one of my favorite shows, so it's more his and Graff's Sonic stuff I'm not particularly fond of.

 

I'd rather Yardley be given the reins for more Sonic Universe stuff or to see Tristan Jones, a.k.a. T-Rex, take a stab at it (since he has expressed interest in doing more with Sonic).

 

As far as all the old universe stuff that's basically gone now... eh. I'm in the corner that didn't want the reboot to happen, and the circumstances surrounding it still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I liked what Flynn was doing with all that material, because even stuff that drove me away from the book years ago, I actually grew to like quite a bit when he started actually making it interesting and relevant. The old writers had a problem of introducing a lot of characters and ideas but never doing anything with any of it, thus creating a lot of bloat and dead weight. It also didn't help that the book spiraled into superhero nonsense at the hands of writers who obviously didn't bother to familiarize themselves with the property they were writing for and basically using it as a platform for their half-baked ideas (I honestly think Spaz was the only fan on staff at the time).

 

I know it makes me sound like a Flynn fanboy, but he and the current creative team were a breath of fresh air that were desperately needed for the book. In addition to making the book more readable and Sonic-like again, they took those half-assed ideas and managed to develop them into something actually worth reading. While the book got weighed down by continuity, it was so much easier to digest and actually pretty accessible compared to the previous writers' approach of "miss an issue? you missed most of the story!"

 

I'll miss some of those old characters, as I always liked Julie-Su, Lien-da, and the Enerjak concept. I'll also definitely miss Scourge if he was lost in the purge too (under incredibly stupid circumstances, I might add) as I liked the turn he was taking from the "King Scourge" arc and the "Lockdown" arc- he was no longer "an Evil Sonic on an Evil Mobius," he also came into his own and seeing the Evil Mobius be completely retooled so everything wasn't just "evil" this and "anti" that was great, especially because I thought the way they were handled prior was lame. They were just the opposite just because. Boring. Seeing them retooled and have actual motivations was incredibly satisfying for me, because I'd long written them off as nothing more than a nuisance when the writers were out of better ideas. If Mogul is also off-limits in this new universe, despite not being tangled in this legal mess, I'll miss him too, because he was one of my favorite villains from even before I dropped the book years ago.

 

But I don't want to be overly pessimistic about the reboot either. We haven't even begun to truly explore this new world yet, and I'm willing to give it a chance. There's a trade off of losing deadweight, getting the stories refocused on the primary characters, and greater accessibility in the new universe, but losing a lot of what was shaping up nicely from the old. I'm conflicted, but I'll deal; maybe this new universe will throw some cool surprises at us.

Edited January 6, 2014 by Zaysho

[Sonictrainer]

Quick question: how would you guys feel if the colors writers wrote a sonic universe arc?

 

I'd rather see it go the other way around and see the Archie writers do a story for a upcoming Sonic game.

[Dejimon11]

As for seeing the game writers write a story arc ill be up as long as it doesn't really interfere with the main story. I enjoyed colors story and tolerated generations and as much as I didn't like lost world story that much there were some great character moments(same can be said about PPP). Maybe we can see how the deadly six as characters instead of archetypes and its their chance to write characters in a way they wanted without gameplay restrictions

As for this new continuity this just started. I'm interested in where this is going. Shadow fall looks awesome, I'm enjoying countdown to chaos and its cool seeing some game references. Yeah it sucks that 20 years of continuity has been rebooted but atleast it's not totally forgotten since sonic and co are acting like avatars/navigators to the new world. On the bright side most of the things that held the comic back won't matter it's a new breath of fresh air

[Mauro Fonseca]

Just doesn't make sense to me, why axe something that has nothing to do with either the SEGA mandates or the Penders bullshit? unless Ian lying through his teeth, which could be a possible factor too.

 

 

You could ask anywhere where these things are discussed, from here to BKC to Sonic Retro to the two 4chans available, what's the logic behind thinking the rest of the characters is gone, before accusing the writer who's gone through enough bullshit already of lying, but hey!

 

Anyways, it's simple enough.

 

1. Gallagher, Bollers, etc. were on Penders' side during the court case, it seems

 

2. The whole reason Penders got away with it is that his contract was apparently destroyed circa 1996 in a fire that destroyed a lot of contracts for the entire company. Well, who else was already on the comic at that time? Who else would likely have their contracts also destroyed, assuming the contracts were kept in the same place?

 

Gallagher, Bollers, DeCesare, etc. The exact same legal circumstances that say Archie can't use the Penders material also say they can't use Gallagher's stuff, or Bollers'.

 

Now of course, this is not to say Archie can't try and negotiate something back with them (hence VEDJ-F mentioning DeCesare or Tania Del Rio, who still work at Archie and thus would in these circumstances be the first to be contacted), but for the time being, this combined with Ian's and Jon's statements and the lack of appearance of anyone in the comic (which sure, maybe wouldn't make sense for the story to have Hope appear, but you'd think they'd nonetheless manage a cameo or anything if only to show "we still have her") paint a clear picture.

[SuperLink]

It's been a long while since I caught up with the comics situation, I recently got a new subscription which I can hopefully keep this time (getting these things while living in Cornwall is tough).

 

I guess I just have a couple questions, I've got the impression that a full genuine story reboot is on the way, is that true? What exactly is happening with the Archie characters? Does this mean less plot and more light-hearted stuff, or just closer characterisation to SEGA-Sonic?

 

Also I guess I wanna know if the pre-Worlds Collide plot points like Geoffery, Naugus, Silver, etc, have been concluded or if there are going to be unanswered plot holes forever. I understand things aren't super easy for the Archie team at the moment but it would really suck if they went ahead with a reboot and left what was getting to be a really interesting plot fully un-answered.

 

Again yeah I haven't followed the situation for ages so some of my questions may be really dumb.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

It's been a long while since I caught up with the comics situation, I recently got a new subscription which I can hopefully keep this time (getting these things while living in Cornwall is tough).

 

I guess I just have a couple questions, I've got the impression that a full genuine story reboot is on the way, is that true? What exactly is happening with the Archie characters? Does this mean less plot and more light-hearted stuff, or just closer characterisation to SEGA-Sonic?

 

Also I guess I wanna know if the pre-Worlds Collide plot points like Geoffery, Naugus, Silver, etc, have been concluded or if there are going to be unanswered plot holes forever. I understand things aren't super easy for the Archie team at the moment but it would really suck if they went ahead with a reboot and left what was getting to be a really interesting plot fully un-answered.

 

Again yeah I haven't followed the situation for ages so some of my questions may be really dumb.

The reboot started at 252, and its more of a soft reset. A lot of htose plot points sadly werent resolved, but I hear there might be a something to tie them up. Not completely sure on the charactization point, as Sonic and Tails have full memories of both timelines, and so do most of the freedom fighters, though they have all gone through various levels of redesign

Oh and considering the fact that the world is literaly starting to tear itself apart, and it appears we are headed towards an unleashed adaption, the comic is not going to be getting to game levels of fluff, even if a number of game events have happened.

Current status is the comic coming out this week is the end of the Countdown to chaos arc, and SU59 starts a shadow arc that could in some ways be considered a (GOOD version) of Shadow the hedgehog 2

Oh, and post-reset Antonie is really Rocking it, same with Rotor

[Chauvel]

This was quite helpful to me. I too was a little confused by everything that has been going on with comic universe recently. Of course, I knew that the Pender's case had a major effect on the series but I wasn't a hundred percent knowledgeable about the outcome. But after reading this thread (and the one on BKC forum) I think I'm getting a good grasp on what's happening.

I'm going to start reading Sonic comics again once the issue is out this week. I've read SU#59 last week (which I dig so far). It's good to know all this before the diving into the comics again.

[SuperLink]

Thanks dude, it's a shame that the Geoffrey/Naugus thing prolly won't be resolved, it was getting really damn good. Fingers crossed for the future.

 

With finishing University and all my own personal dramas in the last year I've totally lost track of which issues I have, which ones I've missed, etc. To my surprise I've barely missed any issues from the mainseries (besides the final issue of Worlds Collide, bugger), but somehow I'm missing at least 5 issues of Sonic Universe running up to Worlds Collide? I dunno how that happened but it's annoying because I really wanted to read the Chaotix arc! Will have to "find" it somehow.

 

Still I guess that's what happens when you have a subscription set up 7 hours from where you live.

[Big Panda]

With finishing University and all my own personal dramas in the last year I've totally lost track of which issues I have, which ones I've missed, etc. To my surprise I've barely missed any issues from the mainseries (besides the final issue of Worlds Collide, bugger), but somehow I'm missing at least 5 issues of Sonic Universe running up to Worlds Collide? I dunno how that happened but it's annoying because I really wanted to read the Chaotix arc! Will have to "find" it somehow.

Easily done: Archie's selling the individual arcs through the Archie Shop.

[SuperLink]

Easily done: Archie's selling the individual arcs through the Archie Shop.

Ooh cool, I'm guessing they ship internationally too?

[Big Panda]

Ooh cool, I'm guessing they ship internationally too?

They do.

[goku262002]

You could ask anywhere where these things are discussed, from here to BKC to Sonic Retro to the two 4chans available, what's the logic behind thinking the rest of the characters is gone, before accusing the writer who's gone through enough bullshit already of lying, but hey!

Heeey hey now take it easy all I said that it was a factor, a plausibility. I wasn't accusing anybody KKM.

 

Anyways, it's simple enough.

1. Gallagher, Bollers, etc. were on Penders' side during the court case, it seems

2. The whole reason Penders got away with it is that his contract was apparently destroyed circa 1996 in a fire that destroyed a lot of contracts for the entire company. Well, who else was already on the comic at that time? Who else would likely have their contracts also destroyed, assuming the contracts were kept in the same place?

Gallagher, Bollers, DeCesare, etc. The exact same legal circumstances that say Archie can't use the Penders material also say they can't use Gallagher's stuff, or Bollers'.

Now of course, this is not to say Archie can't try and negotiate something back with them (hence VEDJ-F mentioning DeCesare or Tania Del Rio, who still work at Archie and thus would in these circumstances be the first to be contacted), but for the time being, this combined with Ian's and Jon's statements and the lack of appearance of anyone in the comic (which sure, maybe wouldn't make sense for the story to have Hope appear, but you'd think they'd nonetheless manage a cameo or anything if only to show "we still have her") paint a clear picture.

So the basic theory is then is that whomever artist sided with Penders during his bullshit basically got their ties severed with Archie and their characters/content cut? Shit, if thats the case theres allot more gone then we originally thought here.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Possibly not necessarily due to that "on Penders' side" part, more due to the "the event that destroyed Penders' contract likely destroyed everyone else's too" part.

 

remember this is speculation, of course. And again, it doesn't mean it's all gone. It just aims to explain why Archie seems reticent to use anything from before instead of just avoiding Penders' stuff, and it seems to generally fit together.

[azoo]

 

Well I didn't make this, but god damn.

 

I know I'm several pages late but I just spit my drink god dang I can't stop laughing help me

[Blackbell]

Possibly not necessarily due to that "on Penders' side" part, more due to the "the event that destroyed Penders' contract likely destroyed everyone else's too" part.

 

remember this is speculation, of course. And again, it doesn't mean it's all gone. It just aims to explain why Archie seems reticent to use anything from before instead of just avoiding Penders' stuff, and it seems to generally fit together.

 

I am kinda hoping that they are gone. No disrespect- some of the characters were great but the comic series needs a reboot and bringing back everything that can be brought back doesn't necessarily mean good. Characters are only interesting when they serve a purpose in a storyline- I think a lot of fans probably wouldn't have cared if substitute freedom fighters were gone if Ian hadn't brought them back in new roles that impacted on the story. 

 

The comic shouldn't bring back EVERY character it can because it can- they should bring them back for a purpose to the storyline and ensure that the characters are going to be developed and not just their for decoration (I'm hinting towards the Echidna population that Penders "invented" - that didn't really bring about much in the end) . The main freedom fighter team are back and with the focus on just them for a while can help bring some character development that's much needed. 

 

In the meantime I am checking my iPad for signs of 256 this week and hoping that it is going to be out Wednesday rather than next week. 

[comic321]

Its funny how penders sued for the echidna characters, but NOBODY sued him for the fact that Geoffrey & Hershey are pretty much copies of Pepe Le' Pew & that cat he suggestively tries to hump.

[Splash the Otter]

Its funny how penders sued for the echidna characters, but NOBODY sued him for the fact that Geoffrey & Hershey are pretty much copies of Pepe Le' Pew & that cat he suggestively tries to hump.

To be fair, Geoffrey was probably based on one of the background characters in SatAM (at various points you can see a skunk with more than a passing resemblance to him).

[Sparky]

So I heard that the digital version of Issue 256 is up. Previews too.

 

http://digital.archiecomics.com/series_comic_details.php?product_id=com.iversecomics.archie.comics.sonic.the.hedgehog.two.hundred.fifty.six.english.12092013

 

From the preview pages alone, I am so happy and exicted. 

 

 

 

After seeing those previews....

The Princess and the Hammer, huh? I was hoping "The Princess" would be the case and not "The Leader"And OH MY GOSH I WAS RIGHT SALLY DOES HAVE HER ARM BLADES!!!! HER CRYSTAL RING WRIST THINGS CREATE ENERGY ARM BLADES!!! THAT IS SO AWESOME!!! SALLY IS OFFICIALLY A SONIC HERO NOW!!! YESSS!!!! Darn, Bean and Bark left. Well, it was nice seeing one of the Sonic versions of me and my crazy friend while it lasted...

 

EDIT: Fixed the quote thingy. But the spoiler is hard to fix for some reason.

 

EDIT 2: Finally fixed that spoiler

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

 

So I heard that the digital version of Issue 256 is up. Previews too.

 

http://digital.archiecomics.com/series_comic_details.php?product_id=com.iversecomics.archie.comics.sonic.the.hedgehog.two.hundred.fifty.six.english.12092013

 

From the preview pages alone, I am so happy and exicted. 

 

 

 

EDIT: Fixed the quote thingy

 

Ha, thats hilarious

, I cant believe they threw in a sonic generations ref XD

[Tenko]

Liking the look of it so far, dunno if previews open to all need be spoilered but will just in case.

Pity Bean and Bark had to leave. Hope its not the last we see of them in ages. I know they can't use eveyone, everywhere etc but long hiatus's are horrible when you like a character that disappears for a while. Maybe they are off to find Fang?

Will be interesting to see if Sally thinks the old world Amy acts any different to her new world memories of Amy. She seems a bit taken a back by that hammer up siding Metal haha >.<