Sonic the Hedgehog IDW/Current Western Comic Megathread

It's almost like they don't care about female characters anymore or something.

 

Lately I’ve felt guilty about how, when buying Sonic comics, I normally just wait for the TPB releases (easier to put on a shelf but doesn’t help the creators as much) so I decided to go to my local comic shop today!
It's strange, it sorta feels more fun to read these in print for some reason, compared to big paperbacks and especially digital ebooks/scans.

I had a great time just looking around the store, and the people working there were really nice, so I’m definitely gonna go back next month for #77 and the new Shadow spinoff!

Spoiler: spoilered because big image (not sure if this is how I'm supposed to do it I'm new lol)

EDIT: By the way I'm sorta new here, is putting images in a spoiler still the norm? I know it was originally to avoid cluttering low-res screens with big pictures (and to save bandwidth in case people had issues loading stuff), but I'm not sure whether it's still tradition to do so.

 

seems a good standard to have for me regardless, I've got a huge monitor and that image is still big for me

 

This board doesn't scale shit so I'm always manually scaling things down.

Unless you're using mobile where it does scale things. There are times I think the image size is just fine, but then I swap over to desktop and it's presented in full 4K Dolby Atmos UHD

 

If the majority of side characters is made to be women to balance out the game cast being mostly men, and it's the majority of side characters that are driving the plot, then the majority of characters who are going to be affected is going to be women. It's not something where they're being targeted for being women, it's something where they're being targeted for being the side characters, and it's just following that the side characters are mostly women in the first place.

 

Just like in the mangas. Every single shonen titles get hit by this. This is nothing new.

 

I'm too impatient to wait for the paperback volumes, so I always buy the monthly releases from my comic book store. It's a lot of fun reading a physical comic book and it gives me something to look forward to every month.

I don't typically spoiler an image unless there are either a lot of them, or it's very large. My thought is, if I was scrolling through this page in the future, would the size or volume of photos make that annoying?

 

I am of the belief that the move away from the restoration is more about how the lore/characters being handled now is fundamentally in a different place from when the book started. There are elements of the book created in the beginning that do not work with what sonic is trying to be now and there's an obvious shift from that

 

Okay, I don't like the comic. But looking at my thoughts I recorded as I went through it, there were some things ABOUT the comic that I liked. I might as well share those as well.

This should be easier, and not take nearly as long as me listing my grievances I did earlier.

While I generally don't care for the character writing in IDW, there were some moments I appreciated.

SHADOW
Around issue 6 or 7 ( I failed to record which one) They do that thing I mentioned that I don't like where they use events that took place outside of the comic to justify current, in comic character actions and dialogue.

But I am willing to overlook it in the case mentioned here because I just enjoyed the moment.

Sonic brings up the events of SA2 as an argument as to why to allow Mr. Tinkerer be, bringing up how Shadow was once an antagonist trying to destroy the world as well but that he had changed. And how if Eggman could not be forgiven, could he.

I appreciated the look Shadow made in the panel immediately following, a nice subtle way of showing Sonic's words were getting through. I like the conflict at hand being resolved in such ways, where it's not just "good guy beats bad guy in a fight" but a genuine change of mind and way of thinking prompted by sufficient motivation. Reasoning and heartfelt appeal are used. That was nice.

- While he has some REALLY bad lines later on in the very same issue, I think Shadow's first few lines in 19 kind of work for the character. His anger in this case is actually somewhat understandable and has a reason behind it rather than that just being his personality. It comes from a genuine disagreement between Sonic and Shadow's apparent philosophy on things.

I'm not the biggest Shadow fan in the world to begin with. Even in his best portrayals I am at most indifferent to him. But I don't know. That seemed liked solid Shadow writing to me, I think?

SONIC
- Have some interactions with Whisper in issue 9 that were kind of sweet before the upcoming battle. "I really appreciate you coming to help. I know crowds aren't your thing. . . I'll give you some space. Be safe down there." I liked seeing that side of Sonicm there.

- 23, Sonic faces about of internal conflict as he is deciding how to deal with a situation involving civilans, because he doesn't want to endanger them or ruin the current plan on fixing the Metal Virus. Shiro Maekawa has expressed that is actually difficult to write for Sonic, but Flynn managed to pull it off.

Of course, this only works in this case because Sonic is characterized differently in IDW than he is in the Adventure games like SA2. But putting biases and preferences aside, I do think that worked and would have liked to see more things like it.

ROUGE AND OMEGA
- Every panel that they are in. Turning Rouge into a joke character was honestly awesome, and made for the first time I actually enjoyed the character

EGGMAN
- I don't really care about Eggman as a character in any media. But in moments like 23 I almost see the appeal.

He's a joke character. A genius when it comes to making things, but kinda' an idiot when it comes to anything outside of that, including common sense. Callously and carelessly doing stupid things that is kind of funny.

TANGLE
While on my initial read I just viewed Tangle as annoying, on the reread I did (that again ended at #59 ) I did come to notice some things about what they were trying to do with the character I do kind of like. She's essentially Sonic 2, being an embodiment of some of the themes and attitudes the series tries to promote, or at least an embodiment of same general positive vibes it tries to shoot for.

- Like in 31. Tough (to bear reading) and (makes me) Grumble asked why Sonic's friends were helping them out. It is Tangle who speaks up and says, "Sonic cured the world of the metal virus __ the gunk Eggman tricked you two into using. He gave the whole world a second chance. So we're making sure everyone gets it."

- I also enjoyed her throughout 37-39. For example, there is a scene where Belle essentially decides that any fate she receives due to being one of Eggman's creation she will accept...

...And Tangle instantaneously, without any hesitation, shuts that all the way down. "Sonic and Tails vouched for you. So you're alright in my book. Besides...

'...it doesn't matter who you are or where you came from, because you're trying to do good today. Don't worry, I'm sure we can find you some answers."

Now isn't that just sweet?

BELLE
Speaking of Belle, I think the direction they are going for her (or at least were going with her when I was reading) kind of works.

- Having to confront the reality that your friends or family you love and care about are not who you believed they were, as seen in 44, is a nice idea for a story.
- And I like what they're trying to explore as far as 49. Belle kind of has a will of her own that she has used to join Sonc's friends and do what she feels is right, despite being one of Eggman's creations and she treasures that. It's not hard to see why she in particular would view other creations of Eggman's who don't have that ability as simply less fortunate, something to be pitied and saved. I quite like that a lot actually.

Belle was honestly probably one of the few characters and probably the only non-joke character that I just straight liked in IDW, having no issues with her.

LANOLIN
- I kind of dipped right after she started to become a real character. But Lanolin is actually a perfect example of the opposite of what I complained about when I spoke of non-characters. Background npcs NOT just being background npcs that annoy me with their incompetence and lack of agency but being REAL characters that they actually do A STORY with. From what I saw, she had a real backstory that sparked a real goal in the world of Sonic, and now in trying to realize it she is having to deal with her own deficiencies and stuff. THAT'S GOOD.

That's...

SOMETHING. I like it.

 

https://bsky.app/profile/danny8bit.bsky.social/post/3lk4p42ly6c2t


Well this is neat

 

I saw that Even has become the "official" artist for the Sonic social media too, is this just general throws for job security in the face of danger or is IDW Sonic actually on its last legs?

 

Are they gonna read the "manga" if it releases? Just reminding customers to look up the writers who worked on previous Sonic comics is not a selling point anymore. They just view niche comics as "mid" and "uninspired", just like the mainstream comics.

 

Actually, I'll admit, this doesn't say anything about the project costing any money - but the sentiment still stands, I'm curious if this is brought on by something we're yet to be clued in on.

 

Did you know Ian Flynn wrote a WEBTOON comic?

 

I think they're just trying to stretch their legs outside of Sonic. IDW seems to be doing ok, but I haven't really been following the whole Diamond Distribution thing. It seems the earlier report was a somewhat exaggeration from an auditor. Sales wise, they were nearly flat vs. Last year, but they were able to cut their losses from nearly $5m down to $1m.

 

Interesting. It's good that the writers and artists for the IDW comic get along well. I can't imagine certain former Archie staff (Flynn and Penders) collaborating on an independent comic together .
Have they said anything on whether this is a webcomic or something physical?

 

As someone who's been reading a lot of Fleetway recently, I dunno if five pages per-story can really milk much out of a premise.

 

I'm happy for the IDW crew, I do like the idea of artists having a chance to share their creative ideas in short stories. As for the matter of them managing to take advantage of their limitations, I don't care honestly, I just want to see these guys flex their creative muscles however they want, and if they get paid for it, even better.
But I do believe this will work, stories can work in short formats. Some have shared examples here.

I want to bring up two Sonic examples, I had criticism of Scrapnik island's 4 issue format limited that story's emotional themes, but also one of the best stories in these comics is the short story "Stargazing" from Archie Sonic, the amount of emotional weight that story carried in a couple of pages can't be found in any other Sonic media.

 

Yeah, this would make a ton of sense.

Which would still be kinda dumb, I think. Not like Shonen Jump invented the concept of "multiple artists have their work compiled into an anthology". But, ah well, not that big a deal.