Sonic the Hedgehog IDW Comic Megathread

I'm not even really sure what's being said. Frontiers is a complete story as it is. There was an obvious weird chunk missing with Sonic's cyber corruption (and not nearly enough interaction between Eggman and Sage before the ending), but that was rectified in Final Horizon. "Small stories that can be told on each island" is exactly what is already there, serving to characterize Sonic and co., Sage, the Ancients and foreshadow The End.

Stuff existing parallel to or outside that story wouldn't be affected. Evan even says it here:

I mean, we got plenty of stuff that allegedly happened during Forces but nobody saw. But the only reason to retell the story that was in Forces would be to retcon it to not be shit and launder its reputation a bit.

EDIT: which, to be clear, I would actually support. If we got a side book just for game adaptations and used it to fix some of the dogshit plot points and storytelling (or the nonsense structure of Shadow's story), that would be a huge boon to series accessibility. Any Sonic game you don't want to play, you could read instead!

 

Games and comics are two different mediums. Even if they're adapting the same story, there are so many different ways that they can be recontextualised. Visually, a lot more can be done to ground the world in a comic, without worries of the limitations of a game engine or voice acting royalties.

Saying Frontiers the game exists, so there's no point in adapting it to a comic, is akin to saying "the manga exists, there's no point to making it an anime."

Having a separate book specifically for game adaptions would be fine as well, though I'd personally prefer it woven into the comic itself. But just skipping over it entirely seems lazy madness to me.

 

Pretty sure we knew this coming into the comic that SEGA wouldn't be doing game adaptations, past, present or future?

 

Not the same, for one, when you adapt the manga to an anime, you do that, take a manga story from beginning, and adapt it in a new medium -anime- from the beginning.

What's happening here though is that there is an established comic run already, with 75 issues and counting, telling it's own stories and having it's own characters, despite being part of the games world, it what makes reading it exciting in the first place, it leaves room for characters not appearing in games to have the spotlight like Blaze and Babylon Rogues etc.

Even if you potentially can add them to a Frontiers Storyline, and even if it's great, it will just be a waste to retread this plotline instead of doing it's own thing and exploring new ideas, i would certainly not be excited to read a monthly comic of an old plotline for like a year or 2 , i do have similar problem with remakes culture in general, like even when they are good or great, it's just not as exciting -unless they twist them, and at that point it's basically a new story anyway-

Now if they did games plot at side comics that won't intervene with the main comic, that would be a good solution and please everyone

 

If my count is correct, Frontiers is something like the fifty-second game in the main timeline, not counting stuff like the 2010s portable versions or decanonized stuff like Pocket Adventure and Chronicles. So it's more like saying that there's no point in adapting Chapter 52 of a manga. If it's gonna be part of the main timeline, I think IDW should work well as either a companion piece to the games or a translation of the entire series' story into a more easily-digestible form (because it's not like we're getting the library rereleased soon, eh SEGA?). I don't want them picking and choosing half-measures between these ideas just because Frontiers is the most recent game.

That's part of what saddened me about Post-Reboot Archie, too; Flynn and co. wanted to start from issue 1 page 1 and had a whole alternate series history for how the games played out in their new universe, but Archie wanted to keep things tied to the Pre-Reboot timeline, so we only got little snippets of it through flashbacks.

 

Disagree 100%, but any argument there will just be splitting each other's hairs until semantic collapse. That's not the point I was getting at, the point I was getting at is one does not preclude, nor undermine, the other. In fact one can greatly elevate the other, just by existing. Serving as advertisement, serving as supplement, serving as alternative, serving as record of the other having existed and serving as a gateway into the lore that might have been missed by those who read the comic and not want to or not have time to play the games.
They can shed light on the creative process, allude to unused material, feature events only hinted at, delve deeper into the backstory. There's more good than bad for adaptation.

You don't have to insert characters who weren't part of the games into the events depicted in the games. I actually said the opposite, finding out WHY they weren't there in the first place could be just as interesting a story.
And anyway... Worrying about it stepping on the toes of the games isn't really a factor when the games step on the toes of their own continuity constantly.

I disagree, but that's purely on the fact I love this sort of media. I can fully understand the "Oh, this is just that but here now, ugh..." mindset.
I want to see these stories, games, worlds from every angle and at the hands of myriads of artists and writers. I'm also fine re-reading novels, and I don't care about spoilers, so knowing what's coming doesn't dampen my enjoyment of the material. There will be things I missed, art I didn't fully appreciate, a nod here, a wink there... The "one and done" culture is a problem for me, when there is so much more to everything.

 

What you're describing falls outside necessarily being an adaptation, though. Why include unused content, feature unseen events or backstory in a repeat of an existing story rather than a totally new one? None of this requires retreading the stuff we've already seen. Seeing what other characters who weren't in Frontiers were doing is, by definition, not an adaptation of Frontiers.

 

I specifically didn't want to stray into semantics.

"Media adaptation is the process of taking content in one medium and altering it or reproducing the content in another medium."

What is the point? Adding content not present in one form is a hook for another.

Bridge Zone. Jungle Zone. Sky Base Zone. Marble Zone. All are zones from Sonic 1, yet one is exclusive to the 16-bit version and three are exclusive to the 8-bit version.

You can have more than one version of a story and have both be unique in their own ways.
The comics aren't going to go in that direction, I'm saddened by it, but nothing I can do. Rather than be a cohesive ongoing narrative, they're an afterthought of the games. It sucks, to me, especially because I enjoy the comics and their characters. I enjoy the writers, I enjoy the artists. They could have put a lot more soul into the characterization than I feel the game had. They could flesh things out to be better.
Tis' the way it tis'.

 

If you're saying that it doesn't matter that the things you want from a "Frontiers adaptation" don't actually require the story of the game itself to be present, then you don't actually have anything to complain about. Elements and ideas from Frontiers appearing in later comics is a guarantee, and parallel stories from other characters during Frontiers is something we just confirmed is explicitly possible. Your argument only makes sense if Sonic 1 8-bit is the same as the 16-bit game without the stages exclusive to the other version. But it's not, those are two different games. Calling this a "semantic argument" just seems like a convenient dismissal.

 

Again, you're making a semantic argument.
You're also taking things I explicitly said can be done in an adaptation, things that can elevate an adaptation, things that only one form or the other can do and making as though I said they had to do it that way.

The problem with semantic arguments is that you just end up correcting and refuting and going around in circles until the end of time.
I bring up Sonic 1 having 2 versions, you say "But that's not an adaptation, they're different games!". It's true, but also contextually dishonest to the actual meat of the point being made. Sonic 1 8-bit is Sonic 1 adapted for a different console with different hardware. Contextually, it was a response to the idea that adaptations have to be identical, which you brought up, and I disagreed with and pointed out was, by definition, wrong.
I'm not interested in that sort of semantic back and forth.

My opinion, and the foundation of my entire point, is that having the Sonic comic flow naturally into and out of the story of Frontiers would be ideal. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

My biggest worry is if people will notice the adaptations being skipped. Not as in their absence, but rather that the game has happened, it's just not seen in the comic.

For instance, has Team Sonic Racing happened yet? The comic starts up after Sonic Forces, does Team Sonic Racing happen before Sonic Forces, so we don't need it skipped? We don't know.

 

I just want the first issue that takes place after Frontiers to start with a small recap of the events of Frontiers and then we get a story arc that builds on stuff from the game like they did with Forces

An adaptation would be weird at this point. I'm not necessarily against it, but I don't see the point of they're not going to adapt other canon games like @Deep Dive Devin suggested

 

I don't think it is a semantic argument. You're saying it sucks that they can't adapt x or y, but you're also using a definition of "adaptation" that includes a bunch of stuff they can and are probably going to do, and telling me it's pointless to recognize that. Your evidence for this is two games that are, by and large, similar only in their name. You might as well be saying "as long as there's a story named 'Sonic Frontiers', I'll be happy". Everything else you're asking for falls outside the realm of a direct adaptation, which is the only thing they've said they can't do, but you're treating it like they're not allowed to touch the game at all.

 

Just finished up reading up #72, gonna give my thoughts on everything relating to the arc below.

Spoiler

I don't think Clutch is sparking any hint of enjoyment from me so far. These mafia/kingpin types function better in a story where their roots are set deep in an organization for a substantial amount of time... The relative time Clean Sweep Inc. and it's conspirators has been affiliated with the Resistance doesn't let this story land. The IDW writers got one foot in the door with the existence of Mimic as a spy inside Diamond Cutters (which is more of a splinter faction anyways but I digress), but apart from that, there's no ingrained corruption or infuriating bureaucracy to really bring any conflict or tensions to a boiling point to make their inclusion feel deserved.

Honestly, Clutch just hasn't been enough of a villainous presence that I think Stanley wants him to be, and that majorly stinks because I feel like he could be a solid heavy hitter for a comic line like this! In relation to Surge's current arc, especially, he is a massive green wet towel. Starline being probably the most traumatizing force blows everything Clutch has done out of the water and then some, so that admittedly doesn't help, but presentation is perhaps this arc's secondary issue… Specifically in the arts department, whenever he’s on page it feels sort of lax. The more menacing portions are few and far between, but they’re not totally backed up by anything visually menacing to match. I follow Paincaked, Reggie, DeeGee and Aaron all on Twitter, so I know they’re wholly capable of upping the ante (I’m including colourist work too since they’ve a large part to play in mood setting), so I'm chalking all my problems to it being a SEGA issue.

To clarify, everything vaguely art related outside of Clutch's character portrayal is what I'm fine with. Could go on for probably eons and get into the nitty gritty, but I want to spend my time doing something more creative instead.

 

Spoiler: Issue #72

A bit of a lull this issue is. The only thing of note is that Surge & Kit failed to quit their jobs (They really should have seen it coming that a scummy businessman like Clutch wouldn't let them just walk out the door), and now Kit is planning something, whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be exciting, and probably violent.

But hey! Even if there is not much to this issue, at least I got a new profile picture out of it. That makes it all worth it to me.

 

Surge is such a little shit, and I love her for it - She uses her seemingly brutish nature to outwit everyone that gets in her way, and even if she lacks offensive options, her power-set allows her to be very resourceful when on defence. She constantly proves to be a pain in Sonic's ass, and it's nice to see him getting progressively more fed up with her antics.

No matter how many Mobians on 'Sonic's World' are claimed to be his rival, there'll only be one of her.

 

Honestly this arc has been the probably the best the main book has seen since the Metal Virus, which isn’t to knock everything in between, but the book’s been consistently hitting all the right notes since this plot started, leveraging the modest cast of characters it has built up over the past 70-odd issues, Surge first and foremost. While the broad strokes oof her intentions are clear, the nuance is vague and I love not knowing how much she’s put together and how that’s going to dictate her endpoint in this arc.

Hopefully next issue finally shows us why Clutch isn’t just a stain on the pavement against Sonic and friends. I’ve been against him since he got here, but putting him in a position where he can cause problems for our heroes in a less direct manner was a good move, I just hope he has some gimmick to help him keep pace with the heroes, like Starline’s Tri-Core. Otherwise I really don’t see how him and his generic henchmen can stand up to such seasoned fighters as Tails, Amy and the Chaotix.

 

I feel like the Phantom Rider part has been... underutilised? Like, Sonic just kinda did things once, then Mimic caused problems disguised as him, caused a few people to know who he is, then he turns up and once again gets his identity revealed, but en masse this time.

The rest of the arc's been great, though.

 

This arc is still running strong. If it continues as it has, I think it will be one of the best arcs of the whole comic.

Surge is the highlight of this issue. She has trashed everyone's plans in the best way possible. It was really clever how she followed the letter of Clutch's order and destroyed the Phantom Rider persona, but not the spirit, and left Sonic alive. I do wonder though what she plans on doing now that he's been exposed.

The poor Babylon rogues are still failing to talk to Sonic, it's not their fault though, there have always been extenuating circumstances. It is just both funny and sad to see them fail to do something so simple so many times.

I feel like Clutch has been a weak point of this arc. At the start he had Surge, Kit, and Mimic on his side, and that was enough, I feel, for him to pose a threat to the restoration. But now that Surge & Kit have turned against him, he seems to have little going for him. If he doesn't have some kind of trick up his sleeve, I don't see how he is really a threat to the heroes.


There is some promo art for this issue.

Spoiler: Promo Art for #73

The Phantom Rider's role from what I can tell was to distract Clutch from Amy and Tail's infiltrating his ship. Did that work? I don't really know. There is also that the Phantom Rider kept Surge and the Babylon Rogue's in the Sweepstakes. Without Sonic, what reason did they have to stay in the races? The Phantom was both someone the Rogues could compete against and someone Surge could fight.

 

This has been a somewhat hefty arc when compared to the others we’ve gotten previously. Consider that a majority of stories last for about 4 - 5 issues; Counting only a few of the issues where the introduction of Clean Sweep into Restoration lifestyle as .5 of an issue, I’d say we’ve had about 9 releases so far since #62 dedicated to these baddies’ shenaniganizing, with two more on the way to tie up this arc and take that momentum onto the next.
Compare this to the Metal Virus Saga, which has gotten a whopping 15 - 17 issues to its name, and we can see that there’s about a 37% size difference between the two. I’d say we’re eating okay with this Clean Sweep Mini-Saga, when not thinking about the Misadventures we’ve had to go through to get to this point (regardless of how well needed and cute it was in hindsight) and that #76 is arriving in December… At least we can look forward to an Annual!