Had a nostalgia moment, bare with me here. Some of the earliest memories I have involve these comics. There's a few scattered memories around 95-98 where I was looking at some Sonic comics. I remember a shot of Sonic's shoe with a buckle, Uncle Chuck was there. The first issue I bought with my own money was issue 99. I remember that one cover to cover, though I didn't have any idea of the plot except that Tails was hurt, Antoine and Bunnie were kidnapped, etc. There was a kissing scene in it which kinda bugged out my then 8-year old mind, confused me in a strange way. I thought, and still think, Mina is cute. Good times. Back to your regularly scheduled Sonic Comics. Wait, I also really remember Nate Morgan. Not sure why. I didn't read the comics again until I torrented up to Issue 200, and stopped around 100-something. Which reminds me of a continuity error about Mina. She was apparently shot dead by Fang and his posse, but was fine in the next issue (which looked like awful Weeaboo shit, by the way). It's never really explicitly mentioned that she was killed, but they do that whole "final confession" thing which usually implies a death. You know, the whole "I always loved you", goes quiet, Sonic goes "oh no" sorta deal. Anyone know what the deal is? Did she die, or was that issue a lack of communication between the several writers?
It never really ended truthfully. Sally has gotten infamy as the Wesley of US medias that writers glorify and make overrelevant in the majority of stories and Sonic's life. The only time she wasn't like this was in the very first issues and the first season of SatAm (which were ironically the eras I found her most entertaining). It's hard to say whether Ian does it more so than others but his methods of bringing her back into the field are controversial. I have noticed a few odd rather random and forced attempts at bringing up 'the slap'. Not to mention a recent blog detailing her near completely with non discript positive traits. He does at the very least seem very insistant fans like her as much as he does.
...have you ever read that arc? It's not exactly the greatest thing ever :DDD But no, I don't think Archie was ever "banned" from making game adaptations. Back in the early days of the comic, there was this perceived notion that the Mega Drive titles had "simple" storylines that didn't need all that much space dedicated to them, and could be done in less than an issue. That, and the format of the comic was still very much self-contained stories. So, the Spinball and Sonic 3 adaptations were standard fare. As the years went on, those adaptations started to grow, most of them given their own 48-page specials (even if most of what was inside had nothing to do with the games they were based on) but were still treated as stand-alone tales. The special format allowed those stories to not interfere with what was going on in the main title, simple as that. When time came for the Sonic Adventure adaptation, the crew at Archie realized that this game would have the most plot ever, with fully voiced cutscenes and the like. And they knew that if they just treated it as a throwaway, one-off story, there would be repercussions. As far as anyone knew, this story would have lasting effects on the Sonic universe as a whole, and just shoving it under the door might cause problems for future game adaptations. So, they prepared. And at the point, they had three separate comics going. It was meant to be an amazing tale...but...well, it didn't work out that way. Right before they were to write it up, the Knuckles comic was canceled. And as plans had already gone far enough, they had to shove that content in the main Sonic title. And because they didn't really have what they needed from Sega, the whole arc just ended up flailing about. When time came for Sonic Adventure 2 to be adapted, Ken Penders didn't want to do it yet, as the game was meant to come out around the same time as issue 100, which he had his own plans for. But, Sega forced the issue, resulting in the issue being little more than an adaptation of the first cutscene, and at the same time ruining the pacing for issue 100 (even though you can argue that was never going to be a good issue in the first place. But that's for another time). I think that was the point when Archie realized that if they couldn't plan out these adaptations to flow into the comic book, that they should just do the "another time, another place" deal. I doubt Sega cares if the adaptations flow perfectly into the comic's continuity, just that it is there to help advertise the game. As a side note, if I recall correctly, when Sonic Heroes came out, Archie was given a choice by Sega - to either adapt the game, or to adapt their upcoming show, Sonic X. Archie of course chose the later, but Ian Flynn (who did not yet work with Archie) was putting together a proposal with Jon "WB" Gray (who was an artist at the time for the series) to adapt elements of the game in a multi-issue arc, and make a powerplay to take over the ailing comic. Although it was turned down, it did put Ian's foot in the door, allowing his eventual hiring as series writer for issue 160.
Wow...thats some explanation! Thanks. No I never read the arc I started again around #186 when things started picking up again but it sounds like it really fell apart now I get why they do these "another time, another place" mini-comics. Didn't S&TSR have 2 "another time, another place" mini-comics? I remember one came with my Secret Rings disc.
Amazing explaination! It's great to know what really happened at that point. I could tell even back then that the SA2 adaption felt forced, and that explains why. I really don't know where I feel the comic should go from here. I don't want it to go back to the 100-159 Penders style, but I'm not really feeling Flynn's current direction. A reboot is what I feel the series needs, but not really in the way they seem to be with the back to Green Hill approach. It's a bit too bare-bones for me. Maybe I can't really determine what would be good because, even though I loved it at a time, Sonic was never made for a monthly publication. I can see them doing a graphic novel series, with more pages devoted to arcs and no pressure to tidily clean things up in a few issues. This is the format that I would want to see a Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 adaption done right in; you could fill nearly a dozen volumes with quality substance just with that. Sam Maxwell illustrating the Adventure tie-in and Spaz doing the Adventure 2 in the way he did issue #98... I'd forget all about the mis-steps the series has ever taken.
Hm, one more thing I just remembered. Some year or so back I browsed Ian Flynn's forums and on there, he stated, on numerous occassions, that there's quite a bit of content that's banned for use in the Comics, such as Neo Metal Sonic, Shadow the Hedgehog (the game's) actual story and Eggman Nega. Neo Metal Sonic apparently was used by Penders before they got the memo from Sega (albeit in design only -- they were built by Chuck and Rotor as Sonic replacements after his year in space, iirc). Shadow's plot was stripped to it's bare bones with the only surviving elements being the Black Arms' existance and intend and their involvement with Shadow's creation (they're apparently kept away from Mobius by having an "endless" war with them there Xorda. :v: ). Oh, and the GUN Commander exists, and even has a fuckin' name in the comics. :B Eggman Nega, now, I have no clue why they don't permit HIM to be shown fully in the comic. He's only allowed to be shown as a silhouette, apparently, can only be addressed as "Dr. Nega" or something like that and may not be involved for a larger part (which made visits to Blaze's Archie-Dimension kinda odd when it came down to explain the Rush-tie-ins. :v: ). Question remains, why won't Sega let those be used? I mean, besides the Black Arms and Shadow's story in general.
They more or less resolved ShtH's story in one issue, #171. They really didn't need to go any further than that. The Black Arms will never actually pop up on Earth because of their current interstellar war with the Xorda (Another alien race that, during Ken Penders' run, were the actual source of Mobians, due to them nuking nearly all of the original humans into non-existence and mutating the animal population.) As far as Dr. Nega, no idea. Maybe they figure one Robotnik is enough? I highly doubt they have plans for him.
Actually, SEGA just tends to block characters that they're still deciding how to use, even if they're not doing anything with them. Cream was blocked for years except for the Sonic X comic; the Babylon Rogues were forbidden for years too until recently; etc. Eggman Nega, being both Blaze and Silver's main enemy, and being in a bit of a stallmate in the games, was likely forbidden until they figured what they want to do. They recently allowed him, though, as he appeared in the Off-Panel for the last issue of Treasure Team Tango.
Well, "Dr. Nega" has shown up twice and is the cause for all the zones being on lockdown. I hope he'll be in someday.
The series has so many alternate look-a-likes of certain characters, whether they're intended to be or not, what good would another Eggman do? I'm not trying to say this would discount the appearance of Dr. Nega, because let's face it the book already has a history of overkill clones showing up from out of nowhere.
Unfortunately, that's how it must be done in order to meet the needs of SU. It really is a shame how fast things go. In fact, I wish they went with a 5-comic arc instead, but, c'est la vie. They have to, it's the alternate reality, so there has to be alternate characters for each character. It's like the alternate reality stories in Star Trek, where every character is shown to have an alternate ego (even Vic Fontaine, a holosuite character). To keep with the alternate reality theme, it is only natural that alternate egos would have to be made for each character.
But how is this any different than what they've done in the past? It isn't. The comic has had so many alternate reality stories, they're just adding more wood to the fire. I guess it's just Archie's way of doing what everyone else is doing and playing it safe. Nega is just more of an excuse to keep doing it.
