Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[redmenace]

Nice issue of Sonic Universe there. If there's something I like is seeing Knuckles' and the Chaotix and a small cast of original characters (and I love the catweazle anyway). And it has Ray, so I love it. Why does he stutter though? Why is he a junior member? He's 15 isn't he? And I always liked the idea of where Angel Island was before it got lifted to the sky (anyway, shouldn't be the place be different after so many centuries passed?). I never liked the complicated story behind it Archie came up with though.

Edited October 14, 2009 by redmenace

[The Conductor]

It's not that complicated really.

Echidnas have big properess city threatend by big white rock.

Smart Echidnas lift the city (and surrounding area) out of the ground with some nice green rocks.

Smart Echidnas later want to put the city (and surrounding area) back where they found it.

Bossman says no.

Bad Echidna tries it any way and blows up some nice green rocks and goes crazy.

You know, I really don't like these call-them-selves-ninja-but-are-nothing-like-ninja-and-are-more-like-samurai that the Iron Queen dagged into the comic with her, it wasn't cool when Naruto did it and it's not cool now, and why don't the bat ninjas look ANYTHING like Rouge, I thought we were done with "ninja" after those bloody spiders all died...

Edited October 14, 2009 by Jack of Blades

[Toby]

The Yagyu bats don't look like Rouge because they were created YEARS BEFORE Rouge.

[The Conductor]

Were they? When? I'm rereading all of the Archieverse books at the moment (I'm only up to The Dark Legion) but I don't recall EVER seeing these bats...

[Toby]

Here you go. An entire article on them.

[The Conductor]

Ah well, I stand corected!

[Viuely]

It's not that complicated really.

Echidnas have big properess city threatend by big white rock.

Smart Echidnas lift the city (and surrounding area) out of the ground with some nice green rocks.

Smart Echidnas later want to put the city (and surrounding area) back where they found it.

Bossman says no.

Bad Echidna tries it any way and blows up some nice green rocks and goes crazy.

Haha...unfortunately... no. Knuckles was MUCH more complicated than that. That's not including how Dimitri and Edmund split ways to form the Guardians and the Dark Legion. It's not including how Knuckles was abandoned in order to train to become a useful guardian and was separated from his mother who divorced his father who remarried some dude and had a kid by said dude named Mace. Nor does it go into how Julie-su was the half sister of Kragok and Lien-da who are related of a long list of characters who are decendents of Dimitri. And because of them she lost her mother in an accident, and then they disinherited her, and then and gave her to a new family which is the source of all the exceptional hatred between Julie-su and Lien-da in the comics. Don't even get me started on the Dingoes, Remington, and the characters in Echidnanoplolis which emerged from a seperate zone ignited by the Ultimate Annihilator and Albion. That said, Knuckles' storyline is WAAY too convulted. What's worse is that Lara-Le and her husband aside (and this is assuming that they never show up again which is unlikely), is that most of the characters in Knuckles inner circle weigh the story down with excessive backstory and things you need to know. Primarily Julie-su, the Dark Legion, and the Guardians.

But Knuckles aside..the thing I keep running into is the fact that to my knowledge, Ian has no plan as to keep the books from competing with one another. If person A just wants to see more Knuckles or Shadow for instance, and the only reason they pick up the main book just to see them, wouldn't it make more sense if they dropped the book in favor of Sonic Universe since there's a better chance you'd see them in there than the main book? I mean if I had to choose between Sonic and the lesser characters I'd at least try to salvage Sonic's book first. Moreover, the problem with this book is that if you focus on the minor characters that the main book just can't touch on and have been here since FOREVER (let alone from an out of print book like Knuckles but I digress), you end up having to deal with all that backstory they had with them making it considerably difficult to get into since the book is an extension of the main book's storyline. Starting mid storyline with these characters is going to get incredibly confusing and is more trouble than it's worth. I don't even get what the point of Sonic Universe is, these characters have already developed the critical dynamics neccessary for us to understand their backstory in the main comics since this seems to be starting midway, which renders it useless to try to make a book (or at least this story in particular) to get us to get to know these characters "better".

Essentially sayng "everything from 180-184" is a really crappy way of explaining things to the readers. The intention of a spin off book should be to let this book stand on it's own without needing to know all the friggin backstory of the previous book because you can't expect people to be able to afford BOTH books, especially kids...let alone from a story going on 2 years old which they might not be able to grab FRESH from the STANDS.

...*facepalm*

Edited October 15, 2009 by Viuely

[Indigo Rush]

I heard somewhere that Eggman says "It's from the show! I'm gonna be on TV!" or something similar in Archie 205. Does anyone have the full issue scanned?

[Dr. Mechano]

I heard somewhere that Eggman says "It's from the show! I'm gonna be on TV!" or something similar in Archie 205. Does anyone have the full issue scanned?

Yep, he says it.

Eggman is crazy awesome in this issue.

[redmenace]

It's that so hard to understand Archie? That all you need to have this comic awesome is to concentrate on Sonic and Eggman interacting? That everything else should be filler and not the main story? Because if you have and you continue doing this I will eat a sock and start defending this comic.

[Miko]

It's that so hard to understand Archie? That all you need to have this comic awesome is to concentrate on Sonic and Eggman interacting? That everything else should be filler and not the main story? Because if you have and you continue doing this I will eat a sock and start defending this comic.

Go right ahead but a story where Sonic does nothing more than throw fists at Eggman is boring. There has to be more to Sonic's life than that and that's where the other characters come in. If seeing people aimlessly duke it out is all you want, I'd suggest watching a sports game, a wrestling match or all the various other comic books that have been written to suite that kind of thing. I'd hate to see the Sonic comic be reduced to just fight panels and that's it.I'm not saying Sonic's internal problems shouldn't have anything to do with Eggman. But I'm saying I want to see more than just them exchanging witty words and punching each other. It doesn't make for a very creative story.

[redmenace]

I said focus on, not just that. I don't want to see kingdom plots, nor do i want to see an endless parade of characters I don't care about.

[Blazey Firekitty]

You know, despite wearing his trademark smirk, Sonic actually seems quite sincere and friendly in that panel. Perhaps that bodes well for Sonic and Eggman's conflict becoming more of a respectful rivalry in the future, as opposed to the vengeful blood feud it's been in the past.

[Indigo Rush]

Yep, he says it.

Eggman is crazy awesome in this issue.

That.

Was.

AWESOME.

:D

[Miko]

I said focus on, not just that. I don't want to see kingdom plots, nor do i want to see an endless parade of characters I don't care about.

I'm not exactly sure I buy that red. Being you just said word for word that all you need to have this comic awesome is to concentrate on Sonic and Eggman 'interacting' and that that everything else should be filler and not the main story.

Edited October 16, 2009 by god

[redmenace]

Well, yes, where does that say that the rest is unnecessary? All series need filler to pad it up, otherwise it's boring and the same thing over and over again. I say the theme of the series should be them fighting. Sub-plots should stay as part of the scenery.

[AdventChild]

Yep, he says it.

Eggman is crazy awesome in this issue.

Can't believe the amount of awesome in this...

[Flyboy Fox]

Yeah, can we have less of the content-less macro posts please guys? =P An image and "that's awesome" (etc) isn't a worthwhile post ^^;

[Miko]

Well, yes, where does that say that the rest is unnecessary? All series need filler to pad it up, otherwise it's boring and the same thing over and over again.

Honestly, all stories DON'T need filler, and I've read plenty of them over the years that didn't. I don't consider filler a story that while related to the plot focuses on Sonic's bonds with the other characters. I happen to think if such concepts aren't fleshed out regularly, the plot itself starts to lose momentum.

I say the theme of the series should be them fighting.

Mindlessly fighting is not a theme though Red. Fighting a battle can be the vehicle used to touch on characterization, bonds between characters and so on like many other action stories but the second the only thing of value is in the tossing of fists, it's kind of lifeless I think.

Sub-plots should stay as part of the scenery.

Subplots (like for example will Sonic and Tails ever reconcile over Fiona) is an issue that while not especially dealt with through being on the battlefield could have been. Subplots are often expressed affected and resolved through the main plot. One of my criticisms of how Archie's handled their subplots throughout the years is that they often aren't affected by Robotnik at all when the stories would probably be stronger if they could establish that. Yes, I'd agree that those filler stories should be scenery and be minimal. But I don't think subplots in general need to be avoided on a regular basis. They just need to be interwoven into the main story.

[redmenace]

Yes, but to the point of dragging through several issues is unnacceptable. You know what I'm talking about. I'm not against them.

Edited October 18, 2009 by redmenace

[Blazey Firekitty]

I think that when Ian actually does character development, he usually tends to do well(Even if I still despise the whole Crazy Bi-polar Fiona thing). The problem, as I see it, is that the book has been, throughout its run, more centered on violence than character interaction. I know that this is an action adventure book, and we can't just have everyone standing around talking all the time, but the book as almost gone to the opposite extreme, where there almost can't be a single page where someone isn't throwing a punch. I wouldn't mind the fights so much if they had more of sense of context...But they really don't seem to, these days. Outside of maybe Mogul, no one really seems to come up with clever plans these days. Sonic doesn't seem to so much go on adventures anymore so much as he just kind of hits things. It's almost like the comic has turned into Streets of Rage or something.

I welcomed Ian's more action oriented approach back when all the comic had to offer was boring, confusing sci-fi stories at the end of Ken Penders' run. But now it's just starting to get stale.

[SchemingMinor]

Yep, he says it.

Eggman is crazy awesome in this issue.

What I would like to point out besides Sonic showing friendliness to Eggman, is what appears to be hesitation on Robotnik's face before unraveling the full force of his "master plan" into the hedgehog's face. It might mean that Robotnik while currently being in an impaired mental state, seems to have a bit of clarity to the things going on around him. He might even have a tiny part in the back of his brain going "the hedgehog cares about...me?" under all of the swirling, demanding threats and hastily crazed thoughts.

[Blazey Firekitty]

Ya know, you gotta wonder why Robotnik never tried to just burn down the Great Forest back in the day.

Edited October 19, 2009 by BlazeyBakeneko

[Phos]

Kintobor: He's recoiling like he saw a spider.

Edited October 19, 2009 by Phos

[SchemingMinor]

Kintobor: He's recoiling like he saw a spider.

Well, yes, that too. The panel before shows excitement and fear in his face, shirking away from the blue blur.

Perhaps a bit of both? Once burned....