Can't really say that Sonic and the DC/Marvel standard comic style would mix really well.. at all. It'd look so misshapenly put together, and from what I've seen from this "Atomic Mouse": I can't really say I'd like to see anything like that for Sonic.. ever. :v: This is more along the lines of what we should see. As for writing, I'd much prefer them to take some pages from some of the current action series from DC. What I mean by that is to put more emphasis on the characters, the environment, and the storytelling at hand. Less focus on the writers pretty much explaining everything that's going on as you progress, and more about character development and interaction. Use less ridiculous banter during action and battle scenes, unless the character is known for running their mouth. And less of these comical effects as well. Fight scenes would be more suspenseful if they weren't watered down with over-the-top cartoony effects and text effects (bam, kabloom and the like). I don't remember so much of that in the issues #25-EndGame arc.
Azukara, how dare you overlook his work on X-Men, Green Lantern, or Batman. http://www.nealadams.com Seriously man, I am disappointed.
Yeah, I just noticed that. However it also said that in those Egg Grapes they would eventually die, so the point kinda stands that they could've stretched out the time in which Sonic took to get back to New Megaopolis. I know it sounds weird for me to be asking for the death of several characters beyond the ordinary plain echidna army (that did need to be wiped out btw); but it would've added extra layers to the storyline and given some newer motives to Sonic and the team as well. Could've seriously added some depth to the occurences that happened within #175; that Sonic really isn't as big of a hero as he thinks he is, and he can't always cheat the deaths of him and his friends even if he could help it. He's a fantastic artist and all, but I'd rather that artstyle or anything of the sort NOT come near Sonic.
Yes I understand why he did it. What I don't get is why he needed to get rid of them in the first place. There was nothing that obligated him to use the echidnas. Just ignore them and focus the comic elsewhere. I felt it cheapened 175 a great deal. All the epicness was dissolved in just a bunch of redshirts being put on a permanent bus. I think I'll settle for the kiddy mouse thing.
It would be long-cancelled, had it been in the hands of a different publisher. I don't see either Marvel or DC taking the license seriously enough to have continued it beyond SatAM's run on television, or beyond the franchise's peak popularity on Genesis. They would've seen it, the way they saw a lot of licensed franchises back in the day, as a quick way to milk dough out of a hot property, then would have dumped it once the property ceased being hot. Also, the comics industry crashed pretty hard in the '90s, while Archie was relatively unaffected, Marvel and DC were hit pretty hard. They both had to make some big cost cuts, and a lot of ongoing series were cancelled, regardless of sales. I could easily see Sonic being a casualty of that crash. As for Image being his handler... Well; this about sums up my feelings concerning that. I could see IDW having success with the franchise, they seem to have carved out a niche in licensed comics, but they weren't founded until 1999, so they didn't exist when Sonic was at his peak. I've always held that Archie's the reason why Sonic's been so successful as a comic book series. They have the advantage of being sold on supermarket and convenience store racks (a market was where I bought my first Sonic issue), whereas all the other major publishers' titles are pretty much confined exclusively to comics shops. That's a HUGE advantage for them. Also, Archie Comics are cheaper than comics from other publishers, putting it within the afford-ability of the kids that read and support it most. Another advantage.
I'm very much not an authority on this as the only Archie comics I own are 204-217 (or thereabouts), but my understanding is that he pretty much was obligated, narratively, to get rid of some of them. The Ancient Walkers, for example, were prophecy-spinning super-Chaos-Controllers that had made umpteen prophecies about the future which basically locked the comics to Penders' tune for years to come. By killing them off in a "if you were really prescient and infalliable, you'd have seen that coming" way, this means Flynn's free to do something other than resolving Penders' shitty plotlines for a hundred issues to come.
Not to mention throwing the guardians into another dimension. Flynn declared war on everything Penders did, and I think the comic improved because of it. At times during Penders' run it very much felt like I was reading "The Echidna comic...featuring Sonic the Hedgehog". I'm glad most of them are gone. It helps give the comic renewed focus.
More or less, yeah. Although Ian did make Aurora, Athair and Merlin the Neo Walkers, but we haven't seen anything come of it and doubt we will for a while. Ian also chucked most of the Brotherhood into another dimension courtesy of Finitevus because for one, they weren't good for anything. They were all more or less older Knuckles recolors that sat around a table and talked. Same with Moritori Rex, although he did have a cooler part in the grand scheme of the Brotherhood simply because he was a spy.
But Flynn replaced them with more Walkers so getting rid of the old ones doesn't make much difference. If he's up to ignore these then why couldn't he ignore the others? And if just one prophecy had failed the walkers would be rendered unimportant or at least falible. It's okay to get rid of them (I'm not complaining), but it felt more like Flynn was taking his personal problems with Penders' run a bit too seriously. Not to mention, it destroyed 175 epicness and I'm repeating myself with that one.
Penders' Echidna Horde (Among others) had been captured by Eggman sometime between #98 and #162. They were being turned into energy for the city. Then that Egg Grape chamber was destroyed bring Naugus out of the Zone of Silence. So yeah, they're gone. Bye bye, never coming back.
Though aren't there still a bunch of them on that Main-planet Enchidna Colony? They weren't all killed off. Just put out of the way in a "manageable size".
I liked the echidna army, and quite frankly, I think Flynn just pussied out with what he's done to the story. It wouldn't be so bad if he would just come up with something epic and interesting but most of his work that I've seen was kind of bland, with some exceptions. I do like his writing, it just gets dry sometimes. But I haven't been keeping up for far too long now. Aside from Sonic's long quills, I like the cover art, though I do mean "like" and not "love", it looks like someone skipped a step in cleaning it up for some reason, but the Death Egg looks nice.
The main thing you have to remember about Ian's stories is that they're all made for kids. He may throw the people who've been reading the comic for a long time a few bones here and there, but there's a reason there's far less dialogue than any other writer and a fight in nearly every issue. But I do admit, he does do morbid humor really well, especially in the most recent sidestory from #220 with Robotnik and Lien-Da.
Fucking kids today have no appreciation for good media. But in all seriousness, I know the comics are meant for kids but I don't understand why that means "simpler" is the way to go. Kids aren't too stupid to keep up with an engaging plot. I think that, if Flynn is writing simple comics for the sake of the age groups, he's underestimating his readers. I suppose I shouldn't voice my opinion about kids today here but I really think the dumbed-down media over the past three generations is one of two things: Part of the cause of the decline in expectation of well thought out material or a testament to how fucking lazy kids really are. I think kids are capable of more than what people think they are, but they aren't willing to put forth the extra effort to show it in a society that would rather carry them, even with the media they are exposed to.
Being made for kids doesn't mean they have to appeal only to the ones that love crazy action and zero plot. I admit to loving the plot from #88-90ish because I loved the way they used more intricate scripts that I had to go out and learn new words, think outside the box, etc. they may have been completely contrived, but the ones Penders didn't directly write are actually pretty darn good. Can't remember who was the writer of the main stories at that time, but he was pretty skilled. Flynn has done right by me by simplifying the elements involved: 7 Chaos Emeralds, the Freedom Fighters have a new base of operation, they're fighting against Robotnik in some way, shape or form. But now, what he has to do is use these elements in a worth-while plot. Even if you like what's changed in the comic under Flynn, you can't argue the majority of the plots have been amazing, or containing any substance. With the Death Egg making a comeback, my hopes are raised for a super simple but elegant plot. Robotnik has the Death Egg ready, but needs emeralds. He tries to get them from the now-special-stage-zone-previously-known-as-the-zone-of-silence-and-the-void-respectively-zone, but they disperse across Mobius. What can the FF's do? Send Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and maybe Chaotix out on a roadtrip-style adventure like what happened in the arc that started in #57 to track down Ixis Naugus. If the team needs to split, continue to follow Sonic in the main comics, use Sonic Universe to follow the remaining characters. This is only my fantasy, and most likely it won't happen, but this is the kind of feel I would love for it to have. A story that needs more than just 2 or 3 issues to complete, that keeps it simple, using the bare-essentials. It's the manner in which they use the elements that will make it memorable.
Yeah, with the Death Egg on the horizon and five of the seven Emeralds soon to be on Mobius (Station Square and G.U.N. have the red and green ones, Mammoth Mogul the gray one, Ixis Naugus the purple one and soon Robotnik the blue one) I can definitely see a Super Sonic return at some point. It is good that Ian has learned the one thing that Sega hasn't: You don't need every goddamn final boss to feature Super Sonic. He is not a cure-all. Then again, he was abused like crazy by previous writers.
Not as much as Metal Sonic has more recently. I can't speak for the most recent issues, but he's gotten way too much screen-time; he's supposed to be a mechanical replica of Sonic, not some slightly more powerful peon robot.
Azukara might have shot down my Marvel dream (despite the fact that they're owned by Disney now and doing Epic Mickey tie in comics), but the old man and Disney comic writer and artist Don Rosa is still alive and I'm still dreaming. If you want to know where the Sonic comic should be if you want more developed material look at Uncle Scrooge: Quest for Kalevala for an example. Really cool engaging story with some extremely detailed art. And while you're at it, search him up and looking for his other works and stories. You'll be happy you did.
