Sonic the Hedgehog IDW Comic Megathread

this story doesn't even focus on sonic the fighters in particular anyway so honey isn't even warranted

 

i'd wager most honey fans are barely aware of fighting vipers at most

 

Fighting Vipers honey does have fans, but most Sonic fans probably only care about her as a Sonic character in the same way you might care about Sara from the OVA becoming a full character.
I think the acknowledgement of her at all, even as a cameo, proves they'd be okay with a full character being built around her and there's no legal barrier in that sense, just a creative one. That's if they ever pitch something serious.

 

As a Honey obssessed fangirl, Fighting Vipers 3 would be literally the best thing ever, but getting Honey [the Cat] to have at least one more cameo after her 3 appearances in 2021 (New year's art, IDW and that one discord emote) would be the second best thing, so I'll take it if it does happen

 

Spoiler: Issue #67

Picked this up yesterday. Thought it was much better than #65 and #66, which at the moment I think were pointless filler. Surge and Kit have joined the Restoration so they can find out who they were before Starline kidnapped them. I really doubt Clutch actually knows anything about Surge and Kit, his relation to Starline is that Starline was a customer of his. So Clutch sold him tech and now that means he knows everything about Surge and Kit? I don't buy that, I think he's just saying whatever he needs to so he can get them to do his dirty work.

Letting Surge & Kit join the Restoration is a risky move, but I can see why they would let them join. Surge does a good job at acting friendly and personable while still maintaining some of her edge, Kit not so much, but Surge does enough talking to keep the attention off him so he gets a pass. Letting them join the Diamond Cutters on the other hand is more questionable. Letting two extremely dangerous and not at all trustworthy people join the only offensive arm the Restoration has is a move that has a large potential to backfire. Wouldn't it have been safer to put Surge & Kit in a less important part of the Restoration where they can't cause any harm for a few weeks or months and if they don't fly off and kill someone, they're probably legit? But the plot must go on, so into the Diamond Cutters they go.

Having 50% of a team be comprised of infiltrators is a recipe for disaster. When this house of cards comes crashing down, I hope it does so in a very violent and exciting manner.

On a completely different note, I don't really understand what the point of issues #65 and #66 were. Clutch hires the Babylon Rogues to steal some artifacts from Angel Island, so that he can "conduct some business without certain parties interfering", which I think means keeping the Chaotix away while he signs a deal with Jewel. But I don't see how his plot with the artifact is necessary. The Chaotix don't work for the Restoration and probably wouldn't have been at the HQ at the same time as him. It seems like Clutch went through a lot of work just to remove what seems to be a remote possibility.

 

Spoiler

"Dr. Starline was a frequent client of mine for... all sorts of resources."
He's inferring he's the one who also supplied the bodies used for the Androids Surge and Kit.

 

Spoiler

I guess Clutch could have been the one to kidnap them, but why would Starline hire him to do it? Clutch is a junk trader not a professional kidnapper, and by the time Surge and Kit were kidnapped, Starline already had the Tri-Core glove and could have done it himself.

 

I'm pretty surprised they went this direction with Surge, although I can guess where it'll go from here. Still, her trying to be friendly is a treat. I like how quickly she warms up to Whisper just because she's the only one at the Restoration who is openly distrusting. Guess they got that in common.

 

Spoiler

I could see the logic being that putting them on the team keeps them within sight of possibly those best equipped to deal with Surge and Kit when Sonic, Tails and Amy aren't around, as well as giving them a big enough commitment that'd be obvious if they are trying something on the sly, since a smaller job might keep attention off them enough to the point where they can slip away to more nefarious things, but what irks me is that Lanolin seems to have commandeered the Diamond Cutters to an extent, given how she was able outcast Silver after his failed attempt to expose Mimic as Duo, and now has at least equal weight in deciding whether Surge and Kit get to join the team as Tangle and Whisper do. All this despite the fact she has the least experience of these adventures out of anyone at the table and is probably the least equipped to handle herself in a fight. I was pretty excited when it was revealed she'd be making a jump from a background cameo to a full-fledged character, but she's really not impressed up to now and comes off more as pushy, arrogant and self-righteous to me.

Anyway, I hope the jig isn't up too quickly. I feel like the story's really frontloaded the plot here in terms of showing who the players in the game are here, but under the right circumstances that could be used to build tension through the drama of readers knowing what the characters don't. Let Surge, Kit and "Duo" go out with the Diamond Cutters on some missions for a bit to at least build a facade of trust. Heck, while I don't want Surge and Kit to turn into Sonic's friends, but the former really seems like she could end up with conflicting loyalties if she were to start actually helping people and becoming appreciated as her own person. Just...don't conclude this part of the story before it gets to reach its full potential.

 

Spoiler

The main IDW comic is going to be taking a break while the Fang mini-series runs. I think the "front-loading" you mentioned might have been done intentionally so that they would have pieces in place before the hiatus starts.

I also thought it was weird that they let Surge & Kit join the Diamond Cutters over Whispers objection. For a team that small, a single objection, especially by their most senior member, should've torpedoed Surge & Kit's chance at getting in.

 

Oh, I thought the Fang stuff would be a mini alongside the main book, like basically every other side story so far. Not encouraged by that, Archie missing releases and such was the beginning of the end, and IDW hasn't even been around a quarter of the time yet. Granted, there were a lot of blips through the Metal Virus, but those were pandemic-related. Then again, perhaps I'm worrying over nothing. I'd like to think the comics are an important tentpole of the franchise at this point, being the most consistent stream of "content" between games, to put it in the corporate sense. I'd hope SEGA sees the book's continued existence as a priority, given that it's pretty much where almost all of Sonic's best writers have come from.

 

Idw regularly missed release dates and does delays a week in advance. I wouldn’t take it as doom and gloom quite yet. I suspect they just want full attention on Fang before perhaps starting another major arc in the main series.

 

It’s never stopped them before though. Hell, Scrapnik Island is more or less entirely divorced from the main plot and released concurrently as an arc was building to a climax. Unless this is supposed to set up the classic exclusive characters finally coming into the modern setting as things were in Archie, I can’t think of any reason for this mini to take over the main title that isn’t driven by poor business conditions.

 

From what I've heard IDW is not doing very well.
According to this article https://www.comicsbeat.com/idw-layoffs-goes-dark-on-the-nyse/ "IDW announced it is being delisted from the NYSE, making large changes in senior management (a new CEO) and laying off 39% of its workforce (including their entire marketing department) as part of “cost cutting measures.”
I'm not a business analyst, but corporate restructuring and layoffs don't scream successful company to me.

 

That stuff was happening before and during IDW Sonic.

IDW keeps trying to kill itself for some reason. I think Sonic wad the only thing keeping it afloat at one point.

 

Maaaaan that’s a bitch. The IDW setup has been really good for Sonic, too. I’d at least hope that, thanks to SEGA’s foresight in making sure they actually own everything this time with watertight contracts, the continuity can actually continue elsewhere if IDW does fold, but of course the best timeline is that the publisher can climb out of its hole.

 

Sonic has been a consistent seller but Turtles is absolutely IDW's top seller. Of the 2 years of sales I tracked before the Pandemic hit, Sonic took the top selling comic for IDW three times. However, TMNT had other series aside from the ongoing (Legends/One-Shots/Rise etc.) to still win out in total sales. If TMNT didn't win, it was either some Rick & Morty mini series or work they did with Marvel/DC. Unfortunately I can't look up any details for recent sales since the site I used previously put their info behind a paywall and the other sites only track up to a certain amount. They also switched distributors. What little I could find doesn't put Sonic in the top 50, but Sonic rarely hit that anyways. It had a consistent 10k sales from what I have in my old spreadsheet.

The problem is IDW as Cleaner mentioned. IDW is sinking. Their bread and butter is license comics and they keep losing those licenses. They lost Transformers & G.I Joe, two licenses they've had for over a decade to Image Comics. Image just published their first Transformers issue in October. Usagi Yojimbo went back to Dark Horse this year. The sales for these titles were spiraling downward under IDW. While I can't speak for Transformers and G.I Joe, I have heard that their quality has dropped significantly and no longer focused on telling interesting stories. Their main TMNT ongoing itself has been dreadful too and I've dropped reading that a long time ago so I believe it. The Saturday Morning Adventures have been pleasant though.

I've been buying Sonic, but I've actually haven't read anything since the Zombie Arc. They're just sitting on my shelf. I imagine the series is still doing well for them, but that doesn't matter if IDW is burning more cash than it takes in. I remember reading something about them making a bunch of bad investments like getting into the board game market. Hopefully they can turn it around, otherwise we gotta hope for a new home.

 

Woah that was reeeeeally a fun issue from the very first page, really shows how the comic was missing something since Surge went out of the picture, now that she is back she bring really fun energy especially with the current dynamics of interacting with the rest of the cast, "pretending" to be nice while keeping all the edge and personality, really great stuff, didn't feel this engaged with the comic in...what feels like almost a year -or whenever Scrapnick Island finished, a side series-, but now i am excited for what's coming next

 

A lot of IDW Transformers was kinda just okay. The new book from Skybound has been way more exciting as a Transformers fan. Thinking of even getting the Cobra Commander book and I am not really a G.I. Joe guy. But yeah the IDW books lost a lot of steam after More Than Meets The Eye ended.