Sonic the Hedgehog IDW Comic Megathread

I think it's fair to fully count everything from #62 onwards as being part of one arc. 62-68 were all set up for stuff that pays off in 69-75, and without 69-75, 62-68 would make no sense and be pointless. I would say that in terms of length it's a full saga, it just doesn't feel as big as the Metal Virus because of how much time was spent on set up.

 

Ahh, but on average, usually half or less of the actual issues pre-#69 contain content relating to set-up for the Riders arc... I'm actually being quite generous by giving that .5 mark, I could say .25 instead or be very mathematically precise in pagecount, but that's a bit extreme lel.
To be precise:

• 62 - Amy & Knux A Plot, Duo B Plot [.5]
  
• 63 - Silver, Whisper & Duo A Plot, Sonic & Blaze B Plot [.5]
  
• 64 - Silver & Duo A Plot, Silver & Blaze B Plot [1] (Deserves a 'set-up issue in disguise' award)
  
• 65 - Knux & Chaotix A Plot, Cream & Rough+Tumble B Plot [0] (They are too stupid for set-up)
• 66 - Knux & Chaotix A Plot, Cream & Rough+Tumble B Plot, Clean Sweep Inc. End Plot [.5]
• 67 - Surge & Co. Full Plot [1] (Not even hiding it, this is a blatant set-up issue)
  
• 68 - Sonic & Tails Full Plot [0]
• 76 - Aftermath of Riders Arc, Start of Shattered Pieces Arc [.5]
  Plus 69 - 75, and that gets us that { 11 issues in total } mark I arrived at previously.

And yeah, I think we can both agree on that!! It don't feel too big, choom.

 

Would it not just be more intuitive to think about this as a continuous plot rather than splitting it into arcs? You could say that this has been going since Impostor Syndrome. Seems more to me like IDW Sonic has always been pretty loose about following the traditional four issue "arc" format in favour of a more organically developed story on a longer timescale, which I much prefer.

 

I think the four-month hiatus between #68 and #69 is where a lot of that tendency to split comes from. Even if it all flows together into one story, that time gap creates a sort of "distance" between the issues before the hiatus and the issues after that makes them seem less close than they really are.

 

Hey, I've been looking back on the stuff that happened post-MV, and got to re-reading issues #37 - #40... Does anyone know what's up with that weather-control tower whose interior could distort all manner of physics, gravity and space? Not the obvious intent that Eggman expunged to Belle I mean, but everything sort of around it. Did it ever get referenced in any future issues?
Perhaps this is something better suited to the Headcanon thread, but seeing those green portals it produced and it managing to subsume the entirety of the base (itself) reminded me of the Warp Topaz' own powerset. So unless Eggman basically created his own insane invention on par with it, I'm tempted to rely on Occam's Razor and say it's got to have been powered by the gem itself.

 

Without spoiling things, Eggman doesn't have the Warp Topaz during these issues. You'll see it again.

 

CW: Spoilers

Spoiler

I know we see it again for the 900th Adventure issue, but apart from that I can't think of or even find an appearance past Super Sonic & Silver warping the virus away. I'm kind of at a loss, if it's alright could you point me in the right direction?
Seeing this tower act like it does feels like an anomaly, a letter lost in the mail, so I kinda want to get to the bottom of this - if there's anything to get to the bottom of.

 

Telling you exactly where to find it would unfortunately spoil the crux of the story it appears in, but I can tell you it's not in the main run - poke your nose into the one-shots and minis...

 

Spoiler

Based on this comment I've inferred that you're alluding to the Fang the Hunter miniseries! After re-reading it, I've only really been able to come up with a shoddy similarity: that the Hard Boiled Heavy ship, Marvelous Queen and Tower™ all instantaneously teleport away with a golden effect. Probably a big stretch, and seeing as you believe Eggman didn't have the topaz at the modern point in time, I think I might've explained myself poorly - I meant to say chronologically does the Topaz appear post-Super-induced MV teleportation?

Which brings me right back to my OG question, what the heck is up with this Tower™? It's existence is suuuuper weird to me as a piece of tech that can do basically do the same thing as the Warp Topaz, if limited to the confines of the facility alone.

I don't really know why I'm so fixated on it -- It screams 'Obvious Plot Device', the story throws it into hammerspace for a chance to be an O.P.D. down the line, and is seemingly never followed up on both in conversation or as something Robotnik / any random villain could use to their advantage. Maybe it's because I see potential, but the exclusion is leaving me befuddled.

 

... have you re-read the entire miniseries?

 

I re-read it just before writing the post. Am I missing something?? I do know what the main crux is, but now I'm questioning my sanity.

 

Okay lemme just clear it up:

Spoiler: Warp Topaz chronology

1. In the Fang the Hunter miniseries, set sometime between Mania and Superstars, Eggman sends the Hard Boiled Heavies out in search of new power sources. In their battleship, they come across the Warp Topaz, but decide to conceal its existence from Eggman. Following rumours of an eighth Chaos Emerald, Fang eventually realises this is the Warp Topaz and steals it from the Heavies.
2. After an unspecified amount of time and threw unspecified means, the Warp Topaz leaves Fang's possession (it's very likely Fang simply sold it between this story and Superstars, perhaps even right after he got it - he's never really been interested in the power of the relics he comes across, only their profit value).
3. Once again, an unspecified amount of time passes. We have no idea how, but the Warp Topaz ends up in an unnamed cave where it's eventually found by Starline.
4. An unspecified amount of time later, Starline shows up in #11. From here, the Warp Topaz's chronology follows his own until Eggman disposes of Starline in #25, taking the Warp Topaz for himself to incoporate into his and Tails' multi-portal generator that Sonic's friends (and the Babylon Rogues) use to steal the Chaos Emeralds from the Deadly Six.
5. After Super Sonic and Super Silver defeat Zavok and use the Warp Topaz to telekinetically separate the Metal Virus from all of its victims and dump into the sun, the Warp Topaz goes critical as a result of exposure to too much power and lets off a huge explosion of energy, blasting itself to Blaze's dimension at the end of #29.
6. A few days later, in #32, Blaze uses the Sol Emeralds to restore Sonic's lost memory and send him back to his own dimension, but the Warp Topaz is nowhere to be seen. Occam's Razor dictates it was still in Blaze's realm at this point.
7. The next and latest appearance of the Warp Topaz was the 900th Adventure. It warps into Tails' workshop as it has once again begun going critical. At the end of his 900th adventure, Sonic returns the Topaz to the cave where it was found by Starline. Whether this is its natural resting place is unknown.

 

So pages from the Knuckles comic are dropping and uh...

Spoiler

Trip's whole ass species are still alive and well lmao. Knuckles thought they went extinct like his people did, but naw. She even has her own Pachahamac as her grandfather.

 

Spoiler

Hm, something that's been bothering me about Classic Knuckles in the US comics for a while is this ego he seems to have around that time. It was also present in the Mega Drive comics with Archie, so this isn't an IDW thing, but I'm just curious as to why, since the games don't really suggest that he's full of himself. Perhaps the intent is for Sonic Adventure's events later on to humble him?

Otherwise, I'm fully onboard with the idea Knuckles taught Amy how to properly utilise her Piko-Piko Hammer. That does genuinely seem like something he'd be able to figure out and help with. Also him guarding Tails' tent during the storm, those are both fantastic and build upon their relationships excellently.

EDIT: Also, that one panel of Knuckles commenting the Master Emerald doesn't do much, just make Angel Island float, I'm pretty sure was a crack at the infamous comment from SEGA about the Master Emerald not having any special powers. Which I find hilarious.

 

I'd assume it's do reconcile the "chuckling" part of his character from the Classic games.

 

I think it works personally. Of course they've been doing it with Knuckles in the modern setting since Generations, so there's parity with that. Otherwise, I think it fits in with Knuckles being quite a guarded guy. He's not necessarily prideful, but my reading of it is that he's wary of allowing himself to be vulnerable or anything other than infallible. He's the last of his kind and saddled with sacred duty, I figure that's got to be a whole lot of pressure for anyone, so maybe putting up a front of confidence is Knuckles' way of managing that, especially after having been taken advantage of by Eggman. Of course, at this point in this life, he's still got a fair bit of friction with Sonic. Overall, I think this comic shows Knuckles in a good place in this time period in that he's learning to let his guard down around his friends (even if he doesn't fully accept that yet). He's learning to recognise when he's wrong and he's trying to meet people halfway, but in his own way that still allows him to save face.