Megathread Archie Sonic Main Discussion

[Arcade Racer CC14]

Yup. I didn't actually get Part 10 until about a week ago. Things have been strange lately.

[Sky]

Mhm, it's been a little wonky with the subscriptions lately. For example, I didn't receive Part 2 until like a week after like Part 4 arrived.

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

Oh...it's good to know I'm not the only one who hasn't been receiving the issues as normally or regularly as I would expect...

[Inkling Cooper]

I've been getting them the same way at my comic shop ever since that licensing problem happened in Australia. (In fact, they got me Worlds Unite Part 9, which the last Worlds Unite part in the Sonic Books I got from my shop was like Part 3. 

Edited August 17, 2015 by Inkling Cooper

[kirby1up]

yeah it took forever for my issues to start shiping correctly i'm assuming part 11 should come this week and part 12 sometime this weekend or next week but yeah seems to be sloppy at the moment

EDIT:welp speaking of part 11 it did come in my mail today and as far as my thoughts on it goes the fight scenes with the sega/Capcom characters were like dream pair ups that fans wanted "well some of them anyways I don't know to much of the other series other then basic street fighter stuff and nights"

as far as sigma in his 3rd form goes well do you guys remember that a long time ago there was a flash series called super Mario bros Z and how a certain mecha robot basically went super sayin with only 4 chaos emeralds and swept the floor with some other characters showing off how awesome and epic he was even though none of this would ever happen in the game series at all? yeah this is basically the sigma fight in my eyes again i'm a sigma fan so I enjoy it but this kinda felt random to be honest also way to go sanic let the Capcom and sega franchises get beaten up or possibly killed by sigma THEN go super sonic with megaman.again I like this for the fan service it gives but I can tell that they could have done a lot more then just a bunch of random stuff with other characters

also for anyone wondering what I ment by mecha sonic then watch this clip from the series and you'll get what I mean

Edited August 17, 2015 by kirby1up
got part 11 and gave my thoughts on it

[ElectricAngel]

Just wanted to pop in here saying Archie still hasn't gotten back on me with what happened to my subscriptions. Having both Mega Man and Sonic Universe expire instead of extended is really annoying me. They didn't even start late, it's just like they took my money and didn't bother shipping out the comics. I just sent another email in attempt to contact them. If all else fails, I'll try to get my dad to call them since he's in America now. 

So, as of now I have Parts 2, 3, 6, and 7 of Worlds Unite. The odd part is, #2 and #7 didn't have any shipping information on them. No stickers, no ink, nothing. Makes me wonder how they even got here, honestly. 

Though, it seems they have issues now for many others as well. Funnily enough this happened with Worlds Collide as well. *sigh* You know, when Archie's customer support has speedy, polite, and helpful customer support, they are one of the best companies out there. When they mess up like this and don't bother informing you or replying to your emails, they come off as a real money hungry and frustrating one. 

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

So quick question: anyone else suddenly remember that horribly dated Sonic's Quest for Power flash? Because got that vibe from the final WU preview.

[Your Vest Friend]

Never even heard of it to be honest.

So from what we've seen of the comic outside of the preview thus far, everyone on Sonic's side bar Sonic himself have lost the memory of Worlds Unite, the Sky Patrol is back to normal, Shadow seemingly dying is tied up over three panels (only when the multiverse was reset, because Sonic recalls that it happened, calls to check and Shadow has no idea why he called) and yeah,

[QuantumEdge]

Never even heard of it to be honest.

 

Hidden Content

It's like I thought before: not one of Kaminski's greatest ideas.  I get the reasoning behind it, but the way it's done makes it seem hardly worth the effort.

[YoshiAngemon]

Never even heard of it to be honest.

 

Hidden Content

And I'm guessing that only Sticks recalls the whole thing, while Comedy Chimp and Fastidious choose to just forget about it, so her friends can question her sanity.

[Your Vest Friend]

Now I have the comic. This issue outright pulls a Sonic '06 on us. :/

[Dantemustdie00]

So they pull ANOTHER Reset button?

Eh, oh well, guess it was expected after all, how else would Eggman get back his Chaos Emerald. Oh damn that would mean Shadow and the crew actually did kick the bucket and the Zeti were likely killed aboard the Sky Patrol when it torn in half.

Edited August 19, 2015 by Dantemustdie00

[Your Vest Friend]

Hidden Content

Actually, I think the comic implies that he's lost that Emerald. There's an item missing from their inventory after the timeline reset.

[Celestia]

So essentially, there was a reset button at the end? Not unexpected, but it's (one reason) why I feel these crossovers should not be interrupting the main book(s). :/ I really, really hope whenever they do another event it's in a separate mini-series or something, and if they really need to, declare it straight up non-canon so they don't have to worry about memories or anything like that.

I'm just happy we'll finally be getting back to how things left off...next month.

[YoshiAngemon]

I wonder if this means that Shadow will be getting his own arc after Silver's, dealing with how he, Rouge, and Omega will get out of purgatory. If not, then maybe Shadow will be free to become Daimando's chew toy, in his videos, particularly, the Shadow Got Owned Series!

[Your Vest Friend]

A little scribble underneath. Contains spoilers for the finale.

 

So, with the story completely out now (and the only parts I'm missing are part 4 and Mega Man: Worlds Unite Battles), I guess now would be a fine time to say what I've thought of the arc in the comprehensive way instead of just spits and spurts as each issue comes out.

Summed up in one noun; a mess. I mean, right out the gate I was concerned about how thinly spread the story would be with so many characters, so I guess that was a negative right off. Then again, I had a similar concern for Worlds Collide (albeit not as grave a concern as here), and that story came out just fine. Not a magnum opus, but it felt cohesive and generally everyone had their place (although I'd say Silver and Blaze were underutilised, and Rouge Woman was laughably pointless).

But here, there's a wholly different issue. this arc feels like it's been way too controlled by mandates and editorial meddling. On Capcom and SEGA's side, they restricted the Capcom and SEGA stuff to strictly the last act (or Archie only negotiated for payment of the sort due to trade release or whatever). They ended up really cramped in, with two issues of nothing but meeting them at a point where you're supposed to be onto the climax (each only getting three pages to interact with a tiny number of characters so most don't get the chance to grip you), and then using them for a single fight scene which renders their input moot after half an issue, and they don't even have anything to do in the last issue bar complain that they can't get home. Waste. You should know I'm usually one of those who will defend most of their mandates, but here they're just too much of a noose.

A lot of the debilitating restrictions don't fall to them, though, they fall more to Kaminski. I mean, trying a fake out death (which turned out to only fake out because Xander went with the Solaris route of dealing with Sigma) with team Dark when you'd just had it in Total Eclipse? Not only was that predictable, the comic was so cramped that the execution was bound to not have the emotional stake he'd intended it to have. Seriously, after Sonic sort of went about his way after finding Shadow's ring, it was never brought up again until this last issue where he had a funny feeling something had happened to Shadow because of said Solarising. And Xander? I think Kaminski said that Xander would be a more relatable baddie or something? Well that's hardly how it worked out, I still know next to nothing about the guy except he's cuckoo like Sticks and he ended up being the one to fix the shredded reality fabric issue in like two pages.

All that said, the X cast are underutilised too despite them being the whole kickstart for the thing. X gets some time with Mega Man and that's one of the better side plots, but that asides he doesn't get nearly as much to do as Sticks, and that's not even mentioning Zero and Axl. Some people can complain about SEGA barring X from going super as well, but it's hardly as if he was contributing that much beforehand. I still think trying to introduce both the X verse and the Boom verse while also doing the Capcom/SEGA stuff was ill advised.

And even outside of them, most other characters played pretty minimal roles. Gemerl kept popping up in the character roster pages even though he was all but gone after the Deadly Six were done, the Freedom Fighters bar Sally and Cream didn't bring much (yeah, for how awkward I feel her wanting to be an active fighter but denied instead of a natural support is, she still had more to do than most of her team mates), nor did most of the Robot Masters, nor most of the Mavericks who became fodder. There were just too many players on the field to focus on that many of them. 

Moving on from character stuff, the pacing is all over the place. The start had a bit of a hiccup with the speed that the heroes got trounced by Sonic Man and M'Egga Man (who I keep forgetting were even in the crossover!), and arguably how fast Sonic and Mega Man were captured (but that was more resolved with the WUB books), but the minute act 2 starts, it's just thrown into disarray. The plains fight took a hell of a long time to resolve, and yet the actual solution took place in two panels with some secret weapon from outta nowhere. Oh, and before I forget, it's also when the Deadly Six were dumped off-screen, because it's also easy to forget they were central antagonists for a significant chunk of the arc. And then we get the last act which spent half its time still gathering heroes before having the last two issues on warp speed effectively, I had to read the last part twice because it wasn't even clear what was happening (for the record, Super Sonic and Mega Man are fighting Sigma a bit before Sigma realises interference with the Master Engine is weakening him. Mega Man and Sonic manage to defeat him then, the heroes realise they can't go home or fix the reality with magic or Chaos Control, then Xander uses the engine to get a portal to the moment Sigma was about to escape X but shoots him, which suddenly makes everything hunky dory for the span of the story).

And then there was the writing. For some reason, it was very exposition-heavy and to-the-point, not the fun style I've come to know Ian for. In Worlds Collide there were several notable moments which came off as memorable because they utilised the characters and played them off each other, but there's not much of that here. You get scant glimpses of it, but it's overshadowed by all that plot-ish talk. Ian gets a bit of time to spread his wings in parts 9 and 10, but again it was just three pages per franchise with them mostly working amongst themselves before interacting with the strangers in the closing panels. Also there was part 5. 

Art...uh, we all know about Act 2 efforts. Part of why it was so boring was due to this; very sparse backgrounds with stiff posing and not a whole lot of energy in the scenes. Can't complain about act 1 and act 3 though, they were more up to the standard I expect from something so grand.

And then we have the Boom cast. I usually do not care for them at all (and I really don't like Sticks' brand of humour), but it's pretty clear that they were the best utilised out of all of the different casts. The selection was small and precise, they each got to be in roles where they could get time to resonate with the audience, and they did provide entertainment when they showed up. Based off this, I'd say it's a shame that readers won't be able to get more of their shenanigans since it ends in two weeks. :/

My favourite story of the lot was Sonic vs the Deadly (three of) Six. It was ironically with a new writer entirely, Joey Enos. Not because it was literary perfection, but it did feel like he was having fun interpreting the characters and having them bounce off one another. The main body of work feels like it was restricted all over the place. It's honestly a shame that I dislike World Unite, because I don't think the majority of the problem lies with the creative staff. House of Cards I'm willing to tear a new one because the characterisation and the resolution fell pretty much squarely on Ian. Likewise, the disjointed pace of Iron Dominion is his as well. Here, it feels more like I'm kicking a dog when they're down.

 

[Dantemustdie00]

Huh, so Xander saves the day eh? 

Not even super Chaos Control was enough to fix everything this time.

[YoshiAngemon]

A shame I have to wait until tomorrow, before or after an appointment of mine to go to the Comic Book Store, Get Sonic 275 and Mega Man 52, and check out the Off-Panel for the Conclusion.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

 

So it pulls a Sonic 06 on us storywise and makes it a pointless arc of action scenes and hype, huh?

Granted, I don't have to speak for everyone when I say we all saw this coming, We knew it was a clusterfuck from the get go, and were only interested in the action scenes. But yeah, with that, storywise, I'm gonna rate this as even worse as House of Cards then (at least until I see the comic myself). Never thought I'd end up saying that. At the very least there was some shake up with House of Cards that left a mark in the continuity, but not so much here.

Edited August 19, 2015 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[YoshiAngemon]

It was either a crossover or a Sonic 2006 Adaptation that would've worked, and WE ARE NOT gonna have Princess Elise make a non-canon appearance in the comics, just to try competing with Marvel's Secret Wars 2015! We all know that Deadpool's One-Shot, where he ends up in the ORIGINAL Secret Wars is a better read than this tripe! Come to think of it, maybe I should bring back all my Worlds Unite books, trade them in for a Deadpool book, and be glad I have the Complete Deadpool!

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Well, if there's one good thing that came from Worlds Unite, I've been inspired to make a whole off panel/story series based on the characters not in the story.

The Waiting Room of Left Over Characters Part 1:

*Silver enters a waiting room, with a vending machine, some magazines and comics, and a TV*

''Hey Silver!''

*Silver sees Blaze waving to him*

Silver: ''Hey Blaze! Long time no see! ...Where are we?''

Blaze: ''Oh, this is the crossover waiting room''

Silver: ''Er, what...?''

*Shadow suddenly speaks up*

Shadow: ''It's where we're stuck while that foolish blue hedgehog and his band of friends go on crossover adventures and we're not invited''

*Silver looks around, seeing a whole lot of characters, such as Phoenix Wright, Boom!Eggman, and the Boom!Cast, Lyric, and others*

Silver: ''How long do we have to wait?''

Omega: ''TIME PERIOD: 3 MONTHS''

Silver: ''WHAT?! WE'RE STUCK HERE FOR 3 MONTHS?!''

Rouge: ''It's not too bad hun. We have snacks and drinks...that is if Mr.Wright will finish up soon''

*Phoenix and Maya are seen trying to push money into a vending machine as it keeps spitting it out*

*Phoenix suddenly points his finger at the machine*

Phoenix: ''OBJECTION! I GAVE YOU WHAT YOU ASKED, YOU GIVE ME WHAT I WANT!!!''

Maya: ''Ughhhh Nick, can't we just get hamburgers???''

Phoenix: ''For the last time Maya, there is no burger place here!''

*Silver shoves his head into his hands*

Silver: ''This is gonna be a long time...this isn't even fair, I was in the crossover for like 2 pages!''

Shadow: ''Join the party Future boy. At least you weren't killed off in a desperate attempt to raise the stakes''

Silver: ''...how can this get any worse...?''

*Suddenly Omochao pops out from behind his chair*

Omochao: ''HI, I'M OMOCHAO, I'M GONNA TEACH YOU HOW THIS CAN GET MUCH WORSE! LIFT THE MAGAZINE TO HOLD IT! OPEN THE MAGAZINE TO READ IT!''

*Silver groans*

Edited August 19, 2015 by Ryannumber1gamer

[kirby1up]

well with the final issue out and me having a craving to make a poll I figured i'd make a poll on to see which issue is considered the best out of worlds unite

link to the poll is here

https://www.wedgies.com/question/55d50ed1d790531100000d79

[Soniman]

So after reading everything can I just say I prefer the first World's Crossover? THe only word I can up with this recent one is "clusterfuck", there's a LOT of good fanservice in it but unlike the first one there's less heart to it all? Like i just feel there was more focus on character in the last one while with this one there's so much shit that everyone gets less of a chance to shine. Just meh. Im glad I skipped this and didnt buy it, ill probably get the graphic novels but as far as im concerend im glad we're continuing the main story now.

Edit: Actually looking through this topic it seems most people disliked it just as much as me, welp. That was a waste of time, at least it's over

Edited August 20, 2015 by Soniman

[YoshiAngemon]

Well, if there's one good thing that came from Worlds Unite, I've been inspired to make a whole off panel/story series based on the characters not in the story.

The Waiting Room of Left Over Characters Part 1:

*Silver enters a waiting room, with a vending machine, some magazines and comics, and a TV*

''Hey Silver!''

*Silver sees Blaze waving to him*

Silver: ''Hey Blaze! Long time no see! ...Where are we?''

Blaze: ''Oh, this is the crossover waiting room''

Silver: ''Er, what...?''

*Shadow suddenly speaks up*

Shadow: ''It's where we're stuck while that foolish blue hedgehog and his band of friends go on crossover adventures and we're not invited''

*Silver looks around, seeing a whole lot of characters, such as Phoenix Wright, Boom!Eggman, and the Boom!Cast, Lyric, and others*

Silver: ''How long do we have to wait?''

Omega: ''TIME PERIOD: 3 MONTHS''

Silver: ''WHAT?! WE'RE STUCK HERE FOR 3 MONTHS?!''

Rouge: ''It's not too bad hun. We have snacks and drinks...that is if Mr.Wright will finish up soon''

*Phoenix and Maya are seen trying to push money into a vending machine as it keeps spitting it out*

*Phoenix suddenly points his finger at the machine*

Phoenix: ''OBJECTION! I GAVE YOU WHAT YOU ASKED, YOU GIVE ME WHAT I WANT!!!''

Maya: ''Ughhhh Nick, can't we just get hamburgers???''

Phoenix: ''For the last time Maya, there is no burger place here!''

*Silver shoves his head into his hands*

Silver: ''This is gonna be a long time...this isn't even fair, I was in the crossover for like 2 pages!''

Shadow: ''Join the party Future boy. At least you weren't killed off in a desperate attempt to raise the stakes''

Silver: ''...how can this get any worse...?''

*Suddenly Omochao pops out from behind his chair*

Omochao: ''HI, I'M OMOCHAO, I'M GONNA TEACH YOU HOW THIS CAN GET MUCH WORSE! LIFT THE MAGAZINE TO HOLD IT! OPEN THE MAGAZINE TO READ IT!''

*Silver groans*

Boom Sonic and his friends should be watching episodes of their show in that waiting room. And fortunately, "Two Good to be True" would be on, to explain to Silver why HE wasn't in the crossover, aside from the whole "Previous Issue" nonsense. And Shadow would end up explaining to Dante of Devil May Cry that KIDS read the comic books, and he would've ended up forcing the publishing to go to Red Circle, and shift the demographic over to the T to M-Rated crowd. Shadow might jokingly bring up MODERN Dante, only to be threatened to be made "The Ultimate Life Form with the Ultimate Hole in the Head" by Classic Dante!

Edited August 20, 2015 by YoshiAngemon

[SSF1991]

God that ending was so anticlimactic. It was pretty much what I expected.

What a shame. This crossover shouldn't have happened. It was just a disappointment through the entire thing.

Edited August 20, 2015 by SSF1991