Spoiler: Issue #68 Well written and unusually good looking issue, a bit fluffy, but there is something substantial here. From what I can tell, this issue takes place between when Sonic left at the end of Urban Warfare and when he came back to the restoration after Surge and Kit joined. If he still has that Emerald when things go down at the restoration, it's going to get very interesting. Spoiler: What IDW Really Stands For Wikipedia says that IDW stands for "Idea and Design Works", but I think I've come up with a more accurate meaning of this initialism.
I’m not commenting on the quality of the book, but Worlds Collide is what started the countdown clock for Archie Sonic. After that crossover did so well, Archie couldn’t get Worlds Unite into production soon enough, and the scope creep of having various different SEGA and Capcom licenses involved (which required finagling with other publishers in cases such as Street Fighter, the comic license for which is held by Udon) made the sequel much more costly, the ramifications of which were seen in the cancellation of Sonic Boom, Mega Man going on indefinite hiatus and consistent scheduling slipping for Sonic and Sonic Universe before the plug was finally pulled, all while Archie Comics pivoted away from licensed books to focus on in-house IP with the likes of Riverdale. I know a lot of people want to see Sonic and TMNT cross paths but, given the apparently difficult financial situation IDW currently finds itself in and the precedent set by the Archie crossovers, I think doing a crossover right now could be detrimental in the long term. With that said, I’m not familiar with Archie’s financial situation prior to World’s Collide, so maybe I’m off base and such a crowd-drawing event could be exactly what IDW needs right now.
I mean, honestly, I feel like we always knew that Mega Man wasn't selling great. Like, not cancellation numbers, but never super well. It's a shame it went on hiatus, but honestly, it was that or it got straight canceled. Also, I always felt the Mega Man comic was kinda boring. Not bad, but just boring. Sonic Boom on the other hand, I dunno, it was a tie in comic and I don't really know if I can cry over the loss of it. Like, it was fine and fun, but I don't consider losing the Sonic Boom tie in comic a huge loss. In terms of scheduling issues, I feel like even before Worlds Unite there were scheduling issues. Issues being delayed by a few weeks or a month. Like, that definitely happened before Worlds Unite. Maybe it happened more often after it, but it's not like it never happened before. I also feel like the shift away from licensed books would have happened either way. They really pushed that big Archie reboot and had big comic names Mark Waid and Fiona Staples on that first book. Those aren't like cheap names either, so they probably wanted to focus on establishing that book and universe, so it could do well. Especially because those first few issues sold really well, better the Mega Man and probably Sonic Boom. But I do recall Archie #1 and a few other after that selling well. So I unfortunately think that business decision would have happened regardless.
Yeah I don't think the cross over was what ultimately lead to Sonic's end. The ball was already rolling for Archie to make a move away from licenses. Those delays were most likely the symptoms of their shift, not the cause. I only remember things off the top of my head so I'll have to do more research, but I think King is correct. The end was probably already coming. IDW (and the TMNT themselves really) are no strangers to miniseries cross overs either. It's not something that would he overly taxing on them to handle. Also the Mega Man book sucked.
I'm going to allow this one post, but no more shitposts about the number from anyone else, please. =P
For real though, I am loving the cover - Deegee's art is always a treat and it's interesting to see the Riders designs on both this and the variants. Spoiler: Variants If that's an Uekawa imitator, they're a damn good one, and if it's the man himself, then it's great to see him doing soomething in that iconic 00s style. They're a couple of years early for Riders' 20th(!) anniversary, but given that we left off the main plot with the Rogues, it makes sense to pay tribute to their game of origin. I reckon we'll be seeing Team Sonic attend a new Aero GP within this arc... EDIT: Ah, turns out solicits have already pretty much confirmed this - a Clutch-sponsered GP. EDIT 2: Turns out the Uekawa cover is by Bracardi Curry - had me fooled completely!
For a moment, I genuinely thought you'd posted an old promo or Archie cover for comparison. That's some grade A nostalgia right there.
"Sonic Prime will be receiving a graphic novel adaptation published by @IDWPublishing. The graphic novel will adapt the first two episodes of season one. Written by Hayden Robel. The expected release for the book is November 2024." source
Saw someone wonder if it's gonna be one of those "screencaps of show with speech bubbles added" comic books That would be kinda crummy
Fourdraine's art is always lovely. There's a reason she's the one who gets to do the retail incentive covers.
Spoiler: Fang The Hunter Issue #3 Fang fails to find the eighth Chaos Emerald Part 3 is here! And, well... He kinda found it? Actually, he found the Warp Topaz, which apparently is what's responsible for the ship teleporting. I suspected the Warp Topaz was going to be the "eighth Chaos Emerald", There aren't really any other gems that are orange/gold, multicolored, and can teleport ships. On that note, I think maybe Starline just kinda sucked at using the Warp Topaz. It took him his whole career studying the thing to be able to use it to open portals. The Hard Boiled Heavies have had it for like, a week tops, and they're already teleporting a whole battleship around like it's no big deal. Massive L for Starlame.
