SPOILER ALERT: IDW Sonic Issue 69 Is Out!

After a long anticipation, it's finally here. Sonic 69. Nice.

...laugh you sheep.

Anyway, Evan is doing art & story and if there is one thing to command is tiny character moments, mostly visual kind. Tails geeking, Amy putting Storm in his place, Kit's pillow fort, Amy nervous over-sugaring her drink. Details like that are Stanley's big strength. (Cubot with a body pillow though, umm...)

Also all the new cool gear. Love Tangle's new outfit and I see she already has Fearless Year of Shadow merch with those shoes. Eggman rocks his look as well.

With that said... what's Clutch's bloody plan? Sonic and Eggman are now on his trail, plus conversation with Jewel can reveal that someone in the Restoration structure is sabotaging things. And what was gained from this? Sonic looked a bit lame. Oh no. What travesty.

Unless Clutch wanted Sonic to investigate and this is a trap, I'm afraid this is another episode of Restoration Ridiculousness. On its own it is a decent frame-up story, but the stakes aren't high and there is no mystery since we know exactly who's responsible.

I'll give points for Phantom Rider. You know how mysteries are often ruined by solicitation showing you the next issues? Well this time Evan was clever and the mystery worked thanks to them. So congrats for that.

Gotta say

I REALLY enjoyed the issue! So, the race begins. The racers (including Ian Jr.) are doing their best, the audience is watching a weird Eggman parody and getting hot dogs from Barry, Clutch and Jewel are talking. Such a nice day, right? Well, Clean Sweep Inc. sure has a smart evil plan. So, Sonic, Tails and Amy are in the lead. The Babylon Rogues came to ruin everything, but Diamond Cutters appear (Tangle has Air Shoes!) and Lanolin blames Jet for being unfair. Sonic takes the lead again. Suddenly a weird green flash appears, and Amy's Extreme Gear went mad! Sonic and Tails are trying to save her, but their gears broke too! Of course, Lanolin has to disqualify them cause the gears are Tails' prototypes and they are dangerous. (Hope she'll become a better character one day) But what happened?! Let's see... Mimic woke up Surge and Kit early (Kit sleeping in a pillow fort is adorable!!!), to give them a suspicious little thing that can knock out Sonic's Extreme Gear. Surge tried to refuse, cause being sneaky is not her style, but then Clutch came in and reminded her how her style ended up last time. Actually Clutch's plan has a lot of flaws, like, if Jewel accidentally mentions his name in a talk with Amy, everything's ruined. He could at least try not to tell Jewel his real name or something. Well, back to the story, Sonic, Tails and Amy are resting in a cafe, talking about their defeat. Something's off... The gears broke at the same time, and Amy's gear is not even one of Tails' prototypes! Suddenly, Eggman shows up (FINALLY). He tells that he lost his inspiration, but he saw the race and got it back (he wants to get revenge on anyone who made that parody). He started building... When Eggman shows his new creation, the Eggstreme Gear, I literally screamed out loud AAAAAAAAAAAH SONIC IS THE PHANTOM RIDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, they now work together, since Eggman wants to know who's behind Clean Sweep Inc. and Sonic wants to know what happened. CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT ISSUE!!!!!!!!!

AT LAST, WE'RE BACK!

I can safely say that I'm intrigued by what's being set up this issue. The race is a fun setting and the intrigue of Clutch working with Mimic, Surge and Kit to sabotage the race has my interest.

I'm seeing some tension in the Diamond Cutters, and am hoping that Lanolin's character flaw of being too much of a stickler for rules will be given some focus at some point. I'd love to see some kind of arc from her since this flaw is being pushed hard lately; I think it would be interesting to see her reconcile her desire for order with a need to get along with her more chaotic associates.

I had been spoiled on who the Phantom Rider was, so I was happy to see that it wasn't actually going to be some big mystery like I'd thought. Secret identity plots are a lot of fun, so I'm already excited to see how Sonic handles this one, and the set-up for that being that he's working with Eggman is unexpected yet believable...Not to mention I love it when there's a hero/villain team up against a mutual foe. I also really liked how the whole deal was made in a diner, with Eggman walking up in a trenchcoat and hat like he's being steathy, lol.

It's a pretty good issue to come back on. I'm excited to see where this arc goes.

33 minutes ago, ShadowForever said:

When Eggman shows his new creation, the Eggstreme Gear, I literally screamed out loud AAAAAAAAAAAH SONIC IS THE PHANTOM RIDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NGL, I literally cracked up on reading that name. Starline would never approve of that pun (not that his opinion was ever worth anything to begin with).

30 minutes ago, Gruffin said:

I also really liked how the whole deal was made in a diner, with Eggman walking up in a trenchcoat and hat like he's being steathy, lol.

The man has always been big on presentation. This is exactly how he'd make that deal.

That's a nice number.

  Man, am I glad to have the main Sonic book back!  The hiatus was way too long in my book! 

 Anywho, I really enjoyed this issue!  Being a fan of the original Sonic Riders game when I was younger, it's nice to see a Riders inspired arc!

 I honestly think Evan Stanley is becoming one of my favorite Sonic comic writers they do a great job writing pretty much all the characters.  IMHO anywho.

I think my only complaint is that issue #70 apperantly won't be out until July 3rd!  But hey, good things come to those who wait and all that jazz I suppose.

Also, Duo/Mimic is riding the Zero Gravity Version of the "Omnitempus (aka Omnipotence)". It's a Board Type Extreme Gear that gives the user the abilities of Speed, Flight, & Power Racers.

 It's been kind of confirmed Surge's Extreme Gear is a "Hang-On" that's been repainted green and yellow.

not to be a hater but THANK GODDDDD THE FANG MINISERIES IS FINALLY OVER!!!! no hate to fang fans, i just personally dont super super care about him all that much so the hiatus was without anything to hold me over in my case :b

i liked this issue ? maybe. im definitely happy with the new arc and im liking what theyre setting up. its always good to see more of surge bc i love her. but yknow. i mean its the start of a new arc so im not going to judge it for being mostly setup. thats like what its going for.

im still coping about no phantom rider metal sonic. i KNEW i was wrong but still.. man he was in free riders....

either way im excited for the future issues in this arc. honestly i liked misadventures more than other people seem to, but i can admit that we really need a more story driven and action focused arc, and this looks promising! im hoping they do more with surge sooner rather than later.

Fang boo's this.

I'd much rather see storys about official characters than the comic exclusive characters tbh. Not to rag on them but all of them besides Whisper are boring. The fact so many people would rather get back to those stories rather than see some cool Fang action and have been NON STOP complaining about a couple of months devoted to that has been irritating at best.

3 hours ago, ASurgeofLight said:

I think my only complaint is that issue #70 apperantly won't be out until July 3rd!  But hey, good things come to those who wait and all that jazz I suppose.

We'll thankfully have Spring Broken coming up June 5th, so that's something to look forward to during the wait

Really like how this arc is shaping up. It had the potential to be a pretty standard "characters compete in a race" kinda story, but eliminating Sonic and crew so early on due to Clutch's machinations and giving them their own goal beyond just winning makes things quite a bit more interesting. Art is just gorgeous, too. Between MoStH and Winter Jam, Min Ho Kim is quickly becoming one of my favorite Sonic artists.

1 hour ago, The-Master-Board said:

Fang boo's this.

I'd much rather see storys about official characters than the comic exclusive characters tbh. Not to rag on them but all of them besides Whisper are boring. The fact so many people would rather get back to those stories rather than see some cool Fang action and have been NON STOP complaining about a couple of months devoted to that has been irritating at best.

hm. i didnt mean to come across that way. its not that i think having more side stories focusing on games characters wouldbe a bad thing, id actually really like to see more of that, i just personally dont really care for fang specifically. i guess its all just a matter of opinion. i can agree to disagree on which characters should get more focus. :b

All this amazing Riders art, really makes the lack of a new Riders game hurt.

I gotta say, after all of this is over, the story's going to have to work pretty hard to get me to like Lanolin again.

What the hell was that with Jet? The fact that he loathes cheating and would never willingly do it in a competition was one of his more interesting traits and this comic shows him openly trying to do that and complaining when he's reprimanded.

I wouldn't say I'm a massive Jet The Hawk fan, but I rather liked that aspect to him. It's a unique trait connected to a Sonic rival. It shows how seriously he takes his own talents and believes that those alone are enough to beat Sonic. He not only wants to prove to his rivals that he is better, but also to confirm it for himself. He can't do that by cheating.

17 minutes ago, Phoenix said:

I gotta say, after all of this is over, the story's going to have to work pretty hard to get me to like Lanolin again.

I don't get the hate at all. Lanolin was just doing her job as a referee and trying to keep everyone safe.  I know she can come off as cold sometimes but she's just serious because she cares about her friends and the restoration.

 She wasn't trying to be a jerk to Amy, Sonic, and Tails.  She was just trying to get them off the track before they or someone else got hurt.  Remember she doesn't know their gear was tampered with.

18 minutes ago, ASurgeofLight said:

 

I don't get the hate at all. Lanolin was just doing her job as a referee and trying to keep everyone safe.  I know she can come off as cold sometimes but she's just serious because she cares about her friends and the restoration.

 

 She wasn't trying to be a jerk to Amy, Sonic, and Tails.  She was just trying to get them off the track before they or someone else got hurt.  Remember she doesn't know their gear was tampered with.

I don't hate her. I just don't like her. She was completely unconcerned with how the team was faring, seemed to blame them for the accident, and left. This is on the back of trusting a complete newby over Whisper being completely sure that something is fishy with him.

A character can only be confidently wrong so many times before it starts to get grating. For me, that point has been long reached.

Sounds like they’re trying to shake off the Sally aura Lanolin previously had, but the path they chose for the character is more obnoxious and annoying, even less prone to risk-taking.

There's another Variant Cover created by Jay Kerrick

https://sonicpaperheros.carrd.co

14 minutes ago, Phoenix said:

I don't hate her. I just don't like her. She was completely unconcerned with how the team was faring, seemed to blame them for the accident, and left. This is on the back of trusting a complete newby over Whisper being completely sure that something is fishy with him.

 

A character can only be confidently wrong so many times before it starts to get grating. For me, that point has been long reached.

 I get that, but at the same time I do think they're building up to something with Lanolin and her mistakes like being fooled by Mimics disguise will come back to bite her in the end. And this might lead to some character development to her becoming a better leader.  And personally I like flawed characters, it makes them more believable.

11 minutes ago, CrownSlayers Shadow said:

Sounds like they’re trying to shake off the Sally aura Lanolin previously had, but the path they chose for the character is more obnoxious and annoying, even less prone to risk-taking.

Lanolin does seem to be a character of extremes, but I think in her mind she's just trying to keep everyone safe, even if she has to be the one that comes off as cold or jerky.  But we'll just have to wait and see where her story goes.

7 minutes ago, ASurgeofLight said:

 I get that, but at the same time I do think they're building up to something with Lanolin and her mistakes like being fooled by Mimics disguise will come back to bite her in the end. And this might lead to some character development to her becoming a better leader.  And personally I like flawed characters, it makes them more believable.

Lanolin does seem to be a character of extremes, but I think in her mind she's just trying to keep everyone safe, even if she has to be the one that comes off as cold or jerky.  But we'll just have to wait and see where her story goes.

I don't think you're wrong, but that's why I expressed it how I did, that the writers are going to have to do a lot of work to get me to like her again.

This needs to bite back, hard. If she's just sad and ashamed, the gang just forgives her like nothing happened (because of course they would), and then we go back to the status quo, I'm not going to be very happy. She's ignoring a lot of very experienced people, and her achievements aren't exactly impressive. Hell, she's ignoring her direct predecessor.

11 minutes ago, ASurgeofLight said:

Lanolin does seem to be a character of extremes, but I think in her mind she's just trying to keep everyone safe, even if she has to be the one that comes off as cold or jerky.  But we'll just have to wait and see where her story goes.

The way I see it, regardless of whether people like her or not, the less Lanolin acts like Sally in character the better.

Not that it’ll make me like her more, but I’d much prefer a cold or jerky Lanolin over one that comes off as a complete replacement to the character she’s compared to. Making her more risk-adverse to Sally’s tolerance of risk-taking is a much more ideal step in making the two more distinct from each other.

1 minute ago, CrownSlayers Shadow said:

The way I see it, regardless of whether people like her or not, the less Lanolin acts like Sally in character the better.

Not that it’ll make me like her more, but I’d much prefer a cold or jerky Lanolin over one that comes off as a complete replacement to the character she’s compared to.

I'm still hoping that Ian finally gets an excuse to reintroduce the core FF in some capacity. I know he wants to.