Finitevus isn't even a Penders character. Believe it or not, people, Ken didn't create every comic-exclusive character in the book.
What are Ian's creations? Trash, Finetivus, the Metal series, and Scourge (And most of Moebius via name and design changes)?
https://sites.google.com/site/sthcharasbyauthor/home This list is incomplete, but helps well enough. Credit goes to The KKM for making it. Finitevus was made by Karl Bollers years before Ian ever went on the book.
Looking over that list, Penders has like, 2 characters that I'd miss (Julie su and Lara su). The rest can promptly fuck off.
So Ian creates a recolored Echidna and it's okay, but Penders' Knuckles clones are all stupid and boring... why? Don't get me wrong I'm not defending Penders. I just don't get why his characters are considered terrible and why some things he did are considered "rip offs" as opposed to "homages". I certainly get that his artwork is terrible; even as a kid I thought the stuff he drew seemed off.
It was always really stiff and emotionless looking even if it tended to be on-model. (Incidentally I think that drawing of Tikal from a page or two ago is by Steven Butler and not Penders.)
I don't think it's that we hate that they're "homages"/"ripoffs" per se. It's more that Penders *insists* that they're 100% original, when they're not only clearly Sega-derivative but derivative of other series/franchises/whatever (especially Star Trek, apparently, which he is a fan of). Homages and such are cool, and nice for fans that are teenagers and adults (and thus catch the in-jokes), but the fact that he's insisting that they came 100% from him alone with no outside influence really rubs at least some people the wrong way. At least, that's why I feel that way. You'd have to get others' opinions. Also, he wasn't very good at giving any character a distinct voice. Other than accents (which don't count, in my opinion, for this type of thing), you could exchange the dialogue between any of the characters and have it be exactly the same. There wasn't any real "this is how Knuckles would talk/respond" or "this is how Vector would" feel, which gives the characters a real monotone or "palette-swap" feel to each other. If that made any sense. Jeeze, this is still going on. I hate the speed of legalities. And he's talking again. ...Rrrright. I think you need to learn what words mean, Penders, because I'm pretty sure that this is a case of "repudiate." (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/repudiate?s=t Especially 3.) Don't use big words to make yourself look smart. You only end up looking like a pretentious idiot.
Pretty much. It's a fancy way of trying to make himself look like the bigger man by acting like he never said anything against Ian's works in the past. Also, for a moment I even thought he was trying to say he was going to try and not contradict Ian's stuff in the Lara-Su Chronicles until I realized how silly and not-Penders that sounded.
Finitevus was created by Bollers, but that's irrelevant. Most characters Penders created and introduced were basically bland exposition-shouters who had an inkling of a good idea somewhere in there, but pulled awfully. Like reading a 10-year-old trying to write his own Star Trek episode. Or watching a modern Doctor Who episode. Finitevus not only has a more striking visual and ability (you'll also notice some of the most remembered Guardians are Spectre and Thunderhawk, who are also the most visually distinct), he was used in a much more interesting way. Instead of a calm villain doing political ploys and talking big, he first appears as a bizarre mysterious raving atheist guy, and then later reappears as a mad scientist actually DOING things, making Knuckles into a villain, laughing, doing spells, winning. Compare to Moritori Rex, who... spent centuries doing nothing while disguised as part of the Brotherhood. Then he's discovered. Then he does nothing. It's also why so many people are upset the Penders characters are gone. Yes, he did jackshit interesting with them. But Ian did. Lien-Da was fun to read. Geoffrey had a new angle on him. Elias was interesting. Thing is, Ian isn't even that great a writer. Or maybe he is, but Sonic's not the best example of his abilities (I hear his best work is New Crusaders, haven't read it yet). But he's all that took to give some life to those characters. Just compare how Sonic was during Penders' MXYL and how he was during Ian's. EDIT: Also, explaining to Nick and whoever doesn't understand the position of the people who want this to be more like the games. For years, the comic was in such a way that you'd play the games and have Sonic and friends having jolly adventures. You'd say "well, I want more. Give me more Tails and Amy and Sonic and Knuckles and Eggman". And you'd open the comic, and it was the drama adventures of the Acorn Royal Line versus aliens and Mina Mongoose or whatever. Maybe that was good too, but it's not what you wanted. You love the franchise because you want the colourful tropical adventures of cartoon animals, not political story. Now, the comic doesn't have to lose everything. Sonic the Comic had a lot of shit unlike the games. But the way they were clever was that they had the heroes be the characters from the games, and the main villains were from the games, and they just added a lot of sidestories. Archie kept, for 20 years, the comic about a conflict of a TV show from 1993. Again, that's not inherently bad, but it DOES create a shock to most people who are picking it up in more recent times. However, it IS also true that this particular issue was pretty much solved since 2006. The comic's been about the SEGA characters versus villains, with the rest as extended cast.
My bad, I somehow didn't see that post. >.< I see your point... I may have to re-read the entire Knuckles series and any stories related to it, because I honestly can't remember the blandness that the characters had. O_O I do remember liking the backstory of the Echidna race, and thinking that it was pretty cool that Knuckles found his family and the rest of his "clan" again so he wasn't really lonely anymore. I didn't get the whole story where he turned green though... and then Spoiler died and came back... Jesus reference?
Penders was basically good at writing lore, even if much of it was from Superman. The problem is, adapting that lore to a compelling comic. I can spend three hours here creating the lore of the ancient civilisation of the Alpacas, how their economy worked, their gods and mythology, their language and culture, etc., but would I be able to then present it in a way that wouldn't be just reading a history book with some semblance of plot to pretend it's a comic? Reminds me of some Portuguese comic books I read as a kid. Now, I grew up reading comic books, and I always wondered "well, I'd like to read Portuguese comics too." And eventually I discovered some, so I read them. They were pretty much a history book with pictures. Boring. Penders isn't as bad as that, but it IS something that hinders him. Did you read the multi-part review of Mobius: XYL we had at the Sonic Retro front page? David explained what I'm trying to say much more eloquently.
I wouldn't worry about the comics losing their mythos just yet. From what I understand, the comic will continue to use the Archie specific characters (I don't know about the penders characters) and everythings going to be going as it's been, with the exception that you can expect the comics to follow the games more closely, not saying they're gonna straight up adapt stories from the games, but the comics will feel more like they belong with the games. Just wait and see. At the end of the day it's up to Ian and Paul what winds up happening, with Sega making approvals, but I don't expect much to change.
So over this past month or so I've been getting into Linkara's Atop the Fourth Wall... It has become increasingly clear to me that everything Penders has done for Archie's Sonic comic isn't uncommon for quite a few longtime writers of big-name comics. Writers have plotted out increasingly intricate stories, they get wrapped up in certain details and don't get around to other details because they figure they have all the time in the world, until eventually they find themselves booted off their title with a remainder of their "epic tale" unfinished and ego unchecked. The thing is, the things that Ken asks for... I could see some of them maybe happening for writers on big-name Marvel/DC titles, in the way that spin-offs of comic book characters list the characters' creators in the credits. That Penders has seemed to have varying degrees of success with this malarkey in relation to a licensed, non-original comic title... leaves me confused and baffled.
I think that's only because these things he pulls is in a comic about a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog aimed at kids 6-12. The things that happen in other books are aimed at long-time fans of books that, despite their silly premises, are in a universe where such things don't seem quite as out of place comparatively. It's only when it's juxtaposed against Sonic that it becomes evident that it doesn't belong, hence people call it out. Schlock is a thing that's in comics. I won't deny I thought a lot of the stuff he did with Knuckles back when I first started reading around the year 2000 was awesome at the time. To an extent I still do. It's not Lord of the Rings, but I always found the idea of a continuity spanning the time before I started reading and its repercussions in the issues I did read was super cool. I didn't have any idea why there was a hedgehog that looked like Sonic but dressed like Robin Hood was there, I had no idea who all these Echidnas in Albion were, nor did I know why Nic and Nack the Weasel were piloting the Millennium Falcon, but it was so cool to me as a kid. Not to mention, he tackled serious issues for a kids book, but (at least back then) it wasn't too big or too serious that it didn't belong. Knuckles' parents being divorced was an element that was relateable to me when I was a kid, for instance. It was only when it started getting melodramatic post-issue 100 that I really started to notice the problems... especially after Knuckles died and beyond. To clarify, I'm not defending him, not in the least. He definitely for the past 10 years has written serious schlock. But credit where credit is due, he did have occasional good stories, and ideas that were good in concept, even if fumbled beyond saving in execution But his Sonic artwork always sucked. Maybe not as bad as Ron Lim's, but still.... Bad.
Oh, yeah, that's what I was trying to get at. Which, again, makes it all the more "wut" that he could still have a case with things like character copyright and the balls to turn down the deal with Archie around likeness. [Green Knuckles image] Yeah... That's what I thought of Sonic on the front cover of Shout Factory's SatAM boxset. Everyone else on the cover looked generally okay, like some amount of effort had been put into making their appearances look reasonably on-model, while Sonic himself looked like a shoehorned sketch by a guy who doesn't quite know about perspective and proportions - not unlike that green Knuckles.
Those legs. Why did Penders draw legs like that? Also that's some long body you got their Knuckles. It's like he's a green hotdog echidna now.
Good Lord... it's like he thought he was drawing a human and then remembered "oh wait, I'm drawing animals!" I could probably draw that better. Well, okay, maybe not.
Christ that is horrifying. I never understand why Ken felt the need to add muscle to the character's design like that.
