Random observations of Surge the Tenrec and Kit the Fennec; Spoiler: New Characters Speculation As the comic title implies, they're imposters/doppelgangers of Sonic and Tails with some of their physical attributes. The lesser-known tenrec animal looks a lot like a hedgehog. A fennec is of course a well-known type of fox. Surge's face looks too much like Ashura to be a coincidence to me and her name is a great pick considering she summons lightning. I just wish I didn't think of green Surge soda... Kit seems to have a backpack with water tentacles, possibly some Chaos-adjacent stuff going on? Obviously named after kitsunes. The cover seems to indicate they have one Tails' tail. If so, the two floppy ears are a cool trade-off that plays off fennecs having large ears. I can't think of any reference or reason for the Tails counterpart to be blue other than plenty of recolors/fanart of it over the years and the fact that they're dealing with water. The two will absolutely will be mixing their water and electricity in combat. There's smart decisions and effort going in to these characters despite looking like simple throwaways on the surface. I doubt they become mainstays. At best, they get given rare bystander appearances down the line as depowered normal characters. Don't let it ever be said that Ian and the team at IDW can't thoughtfully create new, intriguing Sonic characters.
"Surge the Tenrec" and "Kit the Fennec" the species names sound kinda similar, that's cute Spoiler: Notes Sonic being infamous for his battles against mild amounts of water, and Tails having a known fear of lightning... fun things to prey on there! They also seem to be based on more glitch characters, similarly to how their creator Starline is. Not 100% confident in Blue Knux being the specific reference in Kit, but it does compliment the trio (or Starline's inspiration, anyway). As this is a water dude, maybe there's some relation to Chaos, who hasn't shown up yet.
@Dissent + - Why would they go to the trouble of making new characters just to downgrade them to bystanders later? Whether these two remain loyal bouncers to Starline is a more relevant question, but I don't see these guys being a short-lived novelty at all. The comic has made a point of introducing new villains for Sonic to fight as part of an overall world building effort, it wouldn't make sense for these two to be throwaway. The comic as a whole is still relatively new, certainly compared to the Archie book, and needs long term depth to its world to sustain it for years to come. With all of that said... amogus
If Ian wanted a throwaway character to reference a 30 year-old glitch and get written out after their arc, he wouldn't have named them two letters off from the most popular villain he created.
I can imagine Sonic trying to reform Surge and Kit, like what he thinks Eggman is capable of ("I mean, you're clones of good guys!"). Maybe. It would be a shame to have such awesome looking characters only stick around for 10 issues.
https://twitter.com/PPDPPL_art/status/1433544605119639585?s=20 Confirmation of Ashura and other perceived influences, all very cool stuff to have so quickly after a reveal. Very excited to see where their story goes. https://twitter.com/PPDPPL_art/status/1433550300946722825?s=20 More cool character tidbits.
Not particularly comparable because of the different approaches, but Tangle & Whisper had a relatively easy time being quality because it features some downright excellent comic-original characters, yet Bad Guys puts so much work in that it made comic-readers start liking Zavok, which by any account should be an extremely uphill climb! So take from that what you will. (If you're looking for recs for which to read, though, BG is dependent on events in T&W, so you can't skip either of 'em.)
I don't think I even bothered with Tangle and Whisper because I don't like either character that much. But I liked Bad Guys a whole lot, and vaguely got what the entire deal there was to Tangle and Whisper without reading it. So that probably says something.
So, issue 44. Spoiler I liked Sonic’s line about sticking to his principles, even if it feels kinda weird for him to word it like that. Also, didn’t Starline only get data from Belle’s negative emotions?
That'll probably end up being a plot point tbh, given this series. + - Quite unsettling to have him opening up Belle's head and poking around it on-panel. I know she's a machine, but still...
I like how I had to spend so long with the elephant in the room regarding Belle as a character that I've basically disregarded her entirely, only for her to finally get a glimpse of what that elephant actually meant. The idea is fine, but the execution doesn't work for me. You never want to have the audience sitting with the obvious answer for too long, otherwise they won't care when they get the answers that weren't obvious as well.
Honestly I just don't like her generally, backstory aside. In my opinion she doesn't really fit the world and cast, and I far prefer the original designs Evan came up with before SEGA told her to make Belle more like a marionette. Really hoping she doesn't end up being a perpetual character. I would be absolutely fine with her being a sacrificial lamb to raise the stakes at some point.
Personally I quite like Belle. In addition to the backstory which I'm sure will be leveraged as the series progresses, I find some aspects of her identifiable. She's a shy, kind-hearted soul who means the best but who can stumble over herself. She's the outsider who wants to be accepted for who she is in all her quirky friendliness, but the fact that she is different means she has a hard time relating to most people. The fact that Sonic and Co. are showing her she can be herself is definitely an arc that befits the series and kinda echos Tails' arc in some ways. There's a lot of good potential with her character that can be explored and I think that given Evan and Ian's track record it'll be met.
If I recall correctly, the "original designs" were a failsafe in case SEGA were unsatisfied with her looking too much like a marionette.
Oh. As I recall, SEGA wanted her to look more like a Marionette and specifically requested the hinged jaw.
SEGA was the one who asked for the jaw, the failsafe was making belle a more distinct animal https://spiritsonic.tumblr.com/post/650937716272431104/who-came-up-with-the-idea-of-belle-you-or
Man, I would've loved for her to have kept the mouse design because its literally so cute. Every day I wake up and wish we lived in a Mouse!Belle universe (also we need mice characters in Sonic, come onnn). Regardless, as far as my opinion on Belle goes, I ... don't really have one. She's a character that exists. (To be fair, I honestly don't particularly care a lot about any of the IDW-exclusive characters so far, but I digress.) Honestly, I'm just desperately waiting for some interaction between her and Metal Sonic (or Omega) because I feel like that's one of the most interesting things you could do with her at the moment.
