Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[Agie]

That makes sense.

[Fletch]

Meanwhile, Ian confirmed that SEGA explicitly does not want Sonic X reprinted.

I wonder why they wouldn't want any Sonic X reprints... I'm actually a bit sad to know this. I only have the first 15 issues of Sonic X, but yeah, seriously wouldn't mind buying some reprints to read and own other stories of Sonic X. ...This makes me want to try my best and hunt down a bunch of Sonic X comics now...

[Agie]

Even more baffling is that several other franchise have had older comics reprinted regardless of their relevance to their brands' current status quo. There are too many examples, but for some reason, TMNT springs into mind.

[The-Master-Board]

Which is odd because as crappy as SonicX was (the anime not the comics), at least it looks 100 times better than Sonic Boom, even with annoying Chris and missing the point of the series entirely by being about him and not Sonic, at least they managed to make the characters look like the characters.

 

Guess it's SEGA doing their crowd control to make sure people don't get the series confused. Shows how much faith they have in fans. Just wondering how long it'll be til they decide the main series is cramping Boom's style and decide to off that too. Hopefully will never happen. Secretly hoping Boom fails as hard as it looks like it should.

[Dejimon11]

Sonic boom isn't out yet its too early to make that statement

[The-Master-Board]

Yet I've already seen the horrible designs and a sample of the "humor" that will be in it and know that none of the stories will have any gravitas as they are all self contained and just "reset" each episode.

Yeah I'd say I've got enough grounds to dislike it from what I know so far.

[Toby]

And yet some people like those horrible designs, and some people like that humor. For all we know it'll be the most successful take on Sonic in the entire history of the franchise.

[Big Panda]

Even more baffling is that several other franchise have had older comics reprinted regardless of their relevance to their brands' current status quo. There are too many examples, but for some reason, TMNT springs into mind.

That's the one that comes to mind for me to, primarily because one of them was under Archie, ironically.

[UltDevilDoom]

Just so everyone knows, Sonic Universe issue 61 comes out today. At least at the comic shop I go to.

 

Sonic Universe issue 62 supposedly comes out on March 26. But it could (and probably will) be delayed.

 

Also, Ken Penders has changed Lien-Da's race from "echidna" to another race that I don't care enough about to learn the name of. I hope nobody at all supports his new "project".

[Dejimon11]

Sonic universe 61 is out today ill get it either tomorrow or Friday

[Your Vest Friend]

I'm back in the loop baby! Oh yeah!

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

I'm back in the loop baby! Oh yeah!

you were gone?

[Your Vest Friend]

you were gone?

 

In terms of comic ownership, yeah. I missed out on #256 and #257, and the first two parts of Shadow Fall, because of FP having to order their annual supply with Archie again. Mega Man #34 was in last week though, so I knew a Sonic comic would be in this week.

 

It just happened to be the one with baby Eclipse.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

In terms of comic ownership, yeah. I missed out on #256 and #257, and the first two parts of Shadow Fall, because of FP having to order their annual supply with Archie again. Mega Man #34 was in last week though, so I knew a Sonic comic would be in this week.

 

It just happened to be the one with baby Eclipse.

ah good, that makes more sense... well have fun

[Aquaslash]

From Ken Pender's Twitter:

 

Readers will finally meet characters and see civilizations hinted at in Sonic Super Special #2 that Sonic & Knuckles were supposed to meet.

 

In answer to a lot of ?s, events depicted in Sonic #61-64, Knuckles #19-21 & the Sally mini-series play an important part in TL-SC.

 

 

I...errr....what?  Why is he trying to have any ties with Sonic?  Is he like, actually trying to pick off where his old stories left off and tell Sonic stories without Sonic?

[Agie]

Sounds like it.

[Zaysho]

I...errr....what?  Why is he trying to have any ties with Sonic?  Is he like, actually trying to pick off where his old stories left off and tell Sonic stories without Sonic?

That's pretty much been his plan since he started this crusade. It's really cute how he insists his concepts are original and can stand on their own (and specifically had to be retooled because of all this crap), yet he needs the backdrop of the Archie series to carry it. It's also nice seeing that he pretends it's perfectly accessible, when, honestly, it isn't. Good to see old habits die hard, I pity anyone who actually wants to read this crap.

Oh, and don't forget the nugget where he claims he brought value to the Knuckles character. Yet he thinks the only people who can bring value to any character are the creators, so when using the logic that Flynn and Archie gave value to his creations, it doesn't work.

I seriously can't stand this man. I admittedly miss what he brought to the table (in terms of the characters he added to the cast), but that's only because another writer stepped in and fixed all his damned messes and seriously toned down the sci-fi rip-offs he shoehorned in at every turn and made it actually fit the Sonic property (except Future Mobius, which is a hot mess all its own, but at least it was shunted to "what-if" or alternate future territory even before the reboot). Not to mention making these numerous, otherwise forgettable, characters relevant, interesting, and, dammit, likable. That said, there are things he did I don't miss (fuckin' Chaos Knuckles, for example, or the unnecessary political babble that plagued the later parts of the Knuckles book), but that all has been buried/erased at this point. Make no mistake, I'm over the reboot, just not over the root cause of it (so maybe I'm not over it... bleh).

*Ahem* In other news, I got my copy of SU#61, "Shadow Fall" part 3 today. Short thoughts on it? Not bad, and I think it's better than the first two issues of the arc, and I'm interested in the ultimate fate of Eclipse, because I'd like to see him return to give Shadow an enemy of his own (could go either way at this point). He's not an amazing or complex character, but he doesn't reek of the "original the character do not steal" people saddle him with. Maybe he could be a competent Mephiles, even. I'll write something more detailed later.

[Dejimon11]

Well I can say is that tumblur is going to have field day when the Lara su chronicles comes out

[Zaysho]

Well I can say is that tumblur is going to have field day when the Lara su chronicles comes out

 

I feel like Tumblr has a field day every time the man opens his mouth because he just says one idiotic thing after the other to defend his actions or any poor decision he'd made during his time on the book or on the upcoming LSC. The man can't take criticism worth a damn and I fully understand why Archie replaced him when he refused to start playing by SEGA's rules when SEGA started to actually enforce them.

 

...I'm beginning to think we need a "Ken Penders" specific topic. I feel like that's all we talk about waiting for new issues around here...

[Spin Attaxx]

...I'm beginning to think we need a "Ken Penders" specific topic. I feel like that's all we talk about waiting for new issues around here...

[Big Panda]

With the recent discussion that's flared up again recently of Ken's "borrowed" Holocaust poem, it makes me wonder of Archie plan to remove the page from the Knuckles Archives (the issue in question, #22, should be appearing in Vol. 5 I believe).

[Your Vest Friend]

Clear cover with the FFs? Clear cover with the FFs.

[ElectricAngel]

Woah. That high-res version of Digest #6's cover looks amazing. I'm surprised by how good the models and textures are. The low-res previews we got made the cover look really... generic? Not sure what word to use for it. 

 

Anyways, I got caught up until StH #257 and SU #60. On the StH side, um I'm not feeling it that much. I didn't enjoy the issue that much. I'll be honest, I was expecting more Unleashed stuff to happen. But I suppose this is going to be a really long adaption, similar to the Sonic Adventure one back in the day. And honestly, I'm perfectly fine with that as long as they don't stretch out the story too much.

Now, I'm not sure if it's just me, but when Sonic got a little bit of Werehog in him, it sorta came out of nowhere. I get that he jumped off a building, but I never expected Sonic to get pissed so easily. I mean, damn.

 

Aside from that I did like Sally's dialogue. Unlike others, I like the way Ian writes Sally and how she wants to be a determined leader. Seeing her struggling to keep calm because of her alternate memories made her a very realistic character, which I appreciate. 

 

Also, can I just say that I love how Ian writes Big? He's become one of my favorite characters in the comics.

So chill.

 

Bonus: I like how the Chao's circle bobble thing changes based on its emotions like in the games. It's a nice touch. From what I recall, it didn't happen in the comics before, so it was cute seeing it here. 

 

Now as for SU#60. I enjoyed it more than StH #257. I just really like the story so far. I think Eclipse is an interesting enough character and I wouldn't mind seeing more of him in the future.

I don't know about you guys, but I really like it when villains try and destroy the heroes mentally. It just shows how sensitive a person can be and how powerful words can be. And considering Shadow's been through a lot, it's easy for him to get broken down. Especially when you mess with his memories. Poor guy has to fight figuring out what his origin story is every day. I kinda feel bad for him. 

Damn this 2 page shot is powerful.

 

So in my opinion? Eclipse and Black Death make a hell of a powerful (and smart) team up. Even if their plan did fail, you have to admit it was clever.

 

He does sorta have a fancharacter look to him, but it doesn't bother me since most of the other characters prior to the reboot looked like that as well. *cough*Scourge, Lien-Da*cough* (sorry not sorry Pender's character fans) Anyway, I like how we're seeing more of Shadow being a G.U.N. agent as well as more of Omega (seriously I love the way Ian writes this dude).

 

I was never that big a fan of Shadow the Hedgehog's story, but this story arc is interesting enough to make me care about the game's existence so... yeah. Not much else to say here.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Color me mixed. I like that they're doing better than how ShTH did the Black Arms and it's actually pretty decent, but I still hate the fact that aliens came into the picture out of goddamned nowhere as far as the games went with nothing hinting at them being there previously.

 

Makes the idea of retconning the Black Arms away even harder, because now we see that they could actually be done pretty damn well. Though as far as the games go, I'm still leaning hard on retconing the Black Arms into a human (or human/anthro mix) splinter group that caused all the problems in SA2 in the first place.

[Zaysho]

Color me mixed. I like that they're doing better than how ShTH did the Black Arms and it's actually pretty decent, but I still hate the fact that aliens came into the picture out of goddamned nowhere as far as the games went with nothing hinting at them being there previously.

 

Makes the idea of retconning the Black Arms away even harder, because now we see that they could actually be done pretty damn well. Though as far as the games go, I'm still leaning hard on retconing the Black Arms into a human (or human/anthro mix) splinter group that caused all the problems in SA2 in the first place.

 

I don't mind the Black Arms as aliens, personally. Actually, I don't think they were handled poorly, necessarily, but they were kind of forced in and the general timeline felt like it had to have some twisting done to make everything work (the crappy localization doesn't help matters). I have more of an issue with Gerald's role in the whole thing because we just don't get much or any insight about first making contact with Black Doom to the GUN Raid to his eventual imprisonment/loss of sanity and presumably quietly reprogramming Shadow for revenge. Maybe if you could've collected diary notes--think the "Ansem Reports" from the Kingdom Hearts games--just stuff to make the scenario and Shadow's history in the game universe make a little more sense.

 

I do agree that Archie is handling the Black Arms well, though. However, one thing I wished had happened was retaining something from the old continuity as in this being the first time the Black Arms are coming to Earth, with Black Doom heading the invasion, but with Shadow already an agent of GUN. The main reason I say this is because it would retain his past developments concerning his identity and struggles in some form (let's assume the new continuity does share many paralells with the old, including aspects of Archie!Shadow's past--barring the Bem and whatever else that's incompatible with the new) but with Doom's presence serving a similar purpose as Death's/Eclipse's (forcing Shadow to question and choose sides--and we know he'd stay good, come on, now). Granted, that in itself would require some twisting to work...

 

The scenario we're getting in "Shadow Fall" works fine, despite the constant editors' notes telling us that "x event happened in a game that's no longer available!" but that's really the only part of the story that really bugs me; I liked Archie!Shadow's pre-reboot developments from #171 moving forward, so it's a shame that much of that was lost due to the reboot and SEGA-fying of the universe. Eh, I guess I can live either way though.