I'd argue pretty much every apparition he's made showcases traits of his personality, from his bumbling and boistering about in the Tails Adventure to the way he got himself carried in the Geoffrey Trial. He just got the LE FRENCH COWARDE angle downplayed for LE HUSBAND AMOUREUS, such as when he insists in carrying Bunnie around after she is deroboticized or his controlled but obvious rage at Monkey Khan.
I dunno, I just think those instances are far too subdued and reliant on the artist's expressiveness than Ian's writing (which is often too exposition heavy and lacking in distinctive mannerisms for the characters par funny accents). Ant just doesn't seem like a guy that stands out anymore, even in a positive sense, and limited mostly to a 'reactor' character. Even his relationship with Bunnie is ridiculously shallow and forced, having little depth outside the two making constant gooey eyed faces at each other.
I'm kind of starting to hate the direction the comic is going in. It isn't the plot, the plot is still the best it has been for awhile now, but how they decide to use the Genesis thing to act as a reset button for every time they want to make a small change to the world around them, and don't want to dedicate any time to build up to those changes... It is almost like they are sitting in the office and thinking "Well, we wrote ourselves into a corner, let's hit the universal reset button and bring it back to about a few steps ago" or even " We want to redesign the characters, let's hit the universal reset button so we don't have to really explain ourselves and say the plot device did it". Sure, it isn't like that completely BS story they did to explain how Sonic and Amy got their modern designs (While I might point out at the same time they just updated everyone else silently and without any explanation at all). I'm all for consistency within the comic's art style, but I feel it could have been done better. Heck, I lived through that phase of the comic where the style changed from issue to issue, and while I would not like that to happen again, It would give us fans something to poke fun at again.
Except the only reason the Genesis Wave was used a second time is because of the crossover that wasn't planned at all in the beginning. Even before the second Genesis Wave the steps were already being taken to redesign the characters (Bunnie going away, Antoine all bandaged up, Mecha Sally).
I actually really dig the redesigns. I never liked the SatAM- and Archie-created characters as much as Sonic and the other Sega characters even back in the day. Part of that was because their appearances didn't mesh. But I think the redesigns are good in their own right, too.
I think the re-designs are all right, although Antoine's is going to take some getting used to, simply cause everyone is so used to seeing him clothed. I do agree that he looks more like a generic background character by having no shirt and just having a sash going diagonally across his chest. It feels like they've had a million characters with that exact design before. But who knows...maybe they'll improve on it slightly as time goes on?
Just read issue 251. I really liked that Megaman/Sonic crossover, I'm def going to buy the collections of them once they come out. Spoiler This issue basically foreshadows the Sonic Universe reboot. At one point in the issue Eggman essentially says that his multiple genesis waves has broken the Sonic universe, which freaks out Wily because he doesn't want his universe to become all fucked up if they lose. But the issue ends with Sonic and Megaman focusing a chaos control on each of their universes to restore them like Sonic did in 229. Megaman does it fine and the genesis wave is reverted for the Megaman universe. Eggman goes for a last pitch effort to win and knocks Sonic out of focus. When Sonic gets his shot in, Eggman fires a laser at the same time and the beams kind of mix, so something goes wrong and the Sonic Universe basically shatters apart, with Eggman saying "That doesn't look right" and Sonic yelling "What did you do?" at Eggman. I'm looking forward to see exactly what is in store for issue 252 and the future, it only out of curiosity to see what has changed And I'm calling it now, New Mobotropolis is getting a Green Hill coat of paint for the reboot and the world is going to look much more sonic-y than previously.
Also a possibility. I just feel like Ian's doing his part to Sega-fy the Sonic Comic universe. Not completely of course, but more like giving it a green hill coat of paint.
Actually... http://www.sonicstadium.org/2013/07/an-interview-with-ian-flynn/ So no, we aren't having the continuity retconned, even if we're having changes. Ian gives some more interesting info during it, so take a look. One other one he mentions:
Excellent. At least he learns from the feedback. The whole Mecha Sally thing was neat but he's right. It really didn't go anywhere. Especially with the Pendering and crossover looming. Smaller arcs will probably sit well with a world thrown into turmoil along with eventually adding up to a whole.
I think my biggest issue with the arc was the fact that it was a very basic idea (a good idea, to be sure) spread far too thin. I think the Team Freedom and Team Fighters felt wrong, especially because they sent Amy Rose on Team Fighters which just felt thematically wrong. The whole thing very much felt like treading water until the crossover ended, and I believe that if it was not thrown in there, we would have had a much tighter, better paced Mecha Sally Arc. I don't necessarily think shorter is better, as long as you have strong ideas worth the pages, but if you don't, shorten them. I'm glad to hear the next arc will be shorter, but I hope Flynn will take it on a case-by-case basis when it comes to arc length.
My overall problem is that so little character interaction and involvement came from it, it usually amounted to the same thing, Eggman siking Mecha Sal and some generic threat onto villages via his Death Egg and one of the teams stopping it in a fairly generic way. The only notable bits of personality involvement were Sonic's new found (and inconsistent) bitter attitude and the generic shocked reactions by whatever character was pit against Sally, your mileage may vary whether either had much effect. No wonder it would come off repetitive if the characters are almost interchangeable soldiers who do little but act as muscle for each threat per story.
Ya, mecha Sally was stretched too thin. Over 20 issues of Mecha Sally, however it was interesting seeing how Sonic remembered that specifically in the Crossover (Which, btw, the new model of robotized Sonic looks pretty cool in 251). I'm wondering how mecha Sally's arc is gonna end. Because it will. And soon. But when? Also, why the hell doesn't Eggman genesis wave Sonic and friends into roboticizer machines and just activate the button from there? Yes I know "Well plot wise then the comic would end" but I mean, yea, he should. And apparently this crossover seems to indicate that Eggman is far more insane than Wily. Can't say for sure how Wily normally is but is Eggman really more insane than Wily?
Not sure "insane" is the right word for it... "Merciless", maybe. Either way, I was surprised to see that Eggman's willing to [inlinespoiler]kill Dr. Light (or attempt to, anyway)[/inlinespoiler] where Wily wasn't. Eggman never struck me as quite that determined, but then, I don't read the comics regularly. Closest I can think of is SA2, and he was kind of [inlinespoiler]uncharacteristically murderous[/inlinespoiler] in that one, too, what with [inlinespoiler]threatening to kill entire countries at once, and the whole "let's murder Sonic in front of Tails and Amy" stunt[/inlinespoiler] (spoiler tagging those, less so you don't have SA2 spoiled - because you should've played that by now! - and more so you don't get context for the comic spoiler by reading them).
No solicits for Universe or Mega Man yet, but Comic Vine's delivered the #255 one. http://www.comicvine.com/articles/exclusive-cover-reveal-sonic-the-hedgehog-255/1100-146994/
That variant cover art... /> I dunno, characters just seem kind of off-model there. And yes, Antoine's redesign looks even sillier than I thought it would've. I thought it would be a toga sort of thing, but, nope, he's pretty much buck naked.
*barf* I had hoped we were beyond seeing stuff like this in the comics. This Tyler Capps guy is giving off some nasty Ron Lim vibes here. I would greatly prefer it not.
