You know, it's interesting that Sonic's environmental themes are pretty much gone at this point, when it's never been more important to be concerned about them.
Fantastic right? The pro environment messages of the late 80s/early 90s were all for nothing. I think part of why that messaging in general was moved away from though is because that more shamed individuals into like recycling and such which on paper sounds great, but when it’s really 4 companies contributing to like 60% of all polluting, you’re paper straw or putting your Coke can in the right bin isn’t going to do much in the long run (hell you could even put the can in the right bin, but it still might not get recycled). And really what the hell are kids going to do about logging, drilling, fracking, and big oil?
I think the main reason they've been wanting to avoid showing animals popping out of Badniks recently was so you don't question where they go. Like in the Adventure games we see Sonic take them into the Chao Garden to feed them to the water babies but you can't really take the time to show that in a comicbook.
Keep in mind that Robotnik had already pretty much moved away from Flickies (and small animals in general, since there's more than the birds) in robots since Sonic Heroes, a 2003 game. The line would make no sense even without Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW Comics), assuming it still being 'set' in the game continuity. Still, this is the IDW thread, not the continuity nor Sonic Prime thread.
Regardless of how "canon" Prime is, any commentary it makes on lore minutiae should really not be taken as gospel.
Theory on why no flickies: Spoiler Maybe they didn't have flickies because they plan on blowing up or otherwise destroying the whole city and didn't want to suggest the casualties or deal with having to safely move them out.
Now, I'm sure a good chunk of people here know that I do not like being lied to, due to my reaction on a couple of other threads. It's very rare I like finding a lie. Spoiler This is one of those rare times. Various artists, various writers, for a game of hot potato with a space warping rock... It's a very, very, like atomically small, possibility that we'll have a multiversal crossover, or the Warp Topaz making the IDW World reflect and act like the various other continuities like the Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie) World, Sonic Boom World and Sonic the Comic World. We'll probably be limited to the comics version of things, but I'm fine with that compromise if such is the case... though imagine Sonic Underground, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and the Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) world getting caught in that mix... Of course, it's very, very, VERY unlikely, but I am curious as to what they're doing to warrant such various artists and writers...
I’m ecstatic about the upcoming 900th adventure special! Ian Flynn and Nigel Kitching writing in the same book? Talk about a dream come true. I’ve seen conflicting counts online of how this special is the 900th Sonic comic. I hope the issue contains a list of the sonic comics they counted to get to the 900 number. It is a little unfortunate that they couldn’t get Mike Gallagher to contribute since he wrote the first issue of Archie Sonic. Then again, I wonder if he pals with Penders and thus is not interested in returning to Sonic. Does anyone know? Back to positives, I’m also thrilled that Richard Elson is drawing a cover. I hope he also illustrates Kitching’s portion of the issue.
I haven't seen any particular signs that Gallagher pals around with any of his old coworkers (if there's anyone he still talks to it's probably Dave Manak, haha), but as far as I can tell the last thing published with his name on it (other than reprints) was Archie Sonic 185, and even that was probably a bank story they just hadn't gotten around to printing until 2008. The man's in his seventies, Kitching and Elson are like a decade younger than him, I wouldn't be surprised if he's just enjoying his retirement.
Yeah there's not always a deeper reason as to why somebody just isn't a part of something like this. That aside, I too would love to see the various Sonic comic continuities reflected here and a full listed of the other 899 adventures (would be really cool if they did it in the former of a comic cover montage, unless they're counting by individual stories inside comics). If we aren't seeing multiverse stuff, however, it'll be interesting to see Kitching write a Sonic who isn't a dick.
End of the day, for those games to reach you, for those comics to reach you, a lot of environmental damage had to be done. Think distribution, think how much plastic used to produce them, etc. Losing the generic 90s environmental message at the very least makes it less hypocritical imo.
I think you’re missing a lot of Ohshima’s original intent. In Sonic CD the good future doesn’t lack technology, technology is shown to be in harmony with nature. It is possible to invest in new technologies to make various aspects of production greener. Getting into the specifics would be dipping into politics and science… but I don’t think it’s hypocritical for an artist to have an ecofriendly message despite their work being physically distributed. There is always an uneasy alliance between artists and the corporations that distribute their work. The harsh reality is that a refusal to work with companies, many of whom have successfully lobbied against green energy in the US, is to deny urself a career along with any chance of people being inspired by your message and demanding change. For all these reasons I don’t think Ohshima’s message was generic nor was he hypocritical.
I always assumed they backtracked on badnicks being animal powered simply so they wouldnt have to explain how all the explosions dont hurt the animals. im still kinda suprised lost world showed the animals being stocked into them given they were more or less dropped by that point.
From what I recall, Sonic: Lost World was supposed to be a Classic Sonic adventure, hence all the classic elements showing up:
They’ve been built around what’s canon from the beginning and are closely vetted by Sega, but weren’t strictly canon themselves. They’re apparently now treated as canon though (unless they end up contradicting whatever the latest game is, in which case the game takes precedent). You’re not going to see the games reference specific events from the comics but stuff like characters and presumably locations should be ok. At least, that’s the word from Ian Flynn.
I stick to the belief that you can consider elements of the comic canon until the game directly say otherwise. You can treat the Metal Virus Saga as something that is relevant if the games don't actually say "this didn't happen" or make its own adaptation. On a similar note, I consider Sonic Prime canon but substitute everything that contradicts the games (like Prime saying Sonic and Knuckles first met in Hidden Palace) with the game version. I know Wikis for franchises like Doctor Who have it so the TV show is considered the "main canon" but all the comics, books, audio stories, and spin-offs are considered canon until the TV shows directly contradict them.
