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Gammatron 64 posted:The Mecha Sonic from Metallic Madness reminded me of the one from Sonic & Knuckles. That's probably on purpose.   They're actually two very different designs, though I wouldn't be surprise if Spaz took some inspiration from the S3&K one.
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Jun 9, 2017 17:17
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Shinjobi posted:Sometimes I think Cybershell and I are the same person because I just recently went back and read Mecha Madness myself, and apparently we fell off the comic wagon around the same time. Yeah, I dropped the comic around issue #125 too. It's weird. Or maybe it's not because that's kind of when the Dreamcast died and the Sonic game franchise started to go downhill and the comics had entered a downward spiral even earlier. TFRazorsaw posted:
I think it's because they both have kinda lanky proportions and big head spikes. And they don't have those cool crescent shaped eyes and jet engine belly that Metal Sonic has.
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Jun 9, 2017 17:19
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Shinjobi posted:Sometimes I think Cybershell and I are the same person because I just recently went back and read Mecha Madness myself, and apparently we fell off the comic wagon around the same time. Eh it's not an unpopular opinion by any stretch and there's a very clear change in direction (and quality) after that special. Of the Sonic Comics I had when I was 10, I remember two of them. One of them was the infamous Titan Tails issue. The other was this weird story where a human bounty hunter (named Hunter, of course) who was going after the Echidnas, who had been forced out of their homeland or at war or something? Then Knuckles went Hyper Knuckles and beat up Hunter. Even back then, I didn't like these comics. I had gotten into Sonic with the Adventure games and just wanted to see my favorite characters do cool stuff. Where was Robotnik? Amy? Chaos? Shadow? Gamma? Hell, what was Sonic even doing? I was just confused reading these comics, at all the different Echidnas and the references to obscure political intrigue and alternate universes and so much talking and weird artwork and who the hell is this Hunter guy and Mammoth Mogul? I don't care about these guys. I wanna see the characters from the games doing cool and fun stuff. These comics were just weird and confusing, they didn't have any appeal to me as a hyperactive Sonic fan. I think it was for the best that Sonic 06 happened. Sega needed that wake-up call that their brand was spiraling out of control.
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Jun 9, 2017 18:03
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Wait... Doesn't this mean there's incest in Knuckles' family? Or am I reading the chart wrong?  edit: vvv I actually missed the pink and blue coloring on the boxes. Phew. CJacobs fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Jun 9, 2017 |
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Jun 9, 2017 18:19
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If you're talking about the bit with the red line, no, one of the kids has children but they didn't identify a spouse. If you're taking about the fact that they re-join after thirteen generations.. 
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Jun 9, 2017 18:23
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I have no idea but the one named Mari-Su is a bit too on-the-nose
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Jun 9, 2017 18:23
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CJacobs posted:Wait... It's going from bottom to top and it looks like the only shared connection is two family different brothers like a dozen generations back.
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Jun 9, 2017 18:24
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since we're talking about the comic, I'm gonna share my favorite storyarcs from pre and post reboot. Surprise surprise, most of these - but not all - are from Ian Flynn. Pre-Reboot Mecha Madness - This has already been talked about, but this was just flat out great action from start to finish, with great art, a story that mixes comedy and drama, and uses all of its characters well. The idea of Robotnik controlling Sonic was always an idea that seemed natural with the archie version of the roboticizer, and to see it realized was pretty drat entertaining. Return to Angel Island - I included this here mostly because what Karl Bollers did with his character's mad, but it's a solid story. It manages to strike a balance between the Knuckles' characters and, you know, the rest of loving Mobius, and on top of that, it's the one major story where I felt John Gray's artwork was allowed to shine. I've always thought Karl Bollers deserves more credit than the fandom gives him (he's highly flawed but definitely no Penders) and actually had an interest in Sonic as a character) and this was his best work on the book, I feel. Enerjak Reborn - Ken Penders' Knuckles' stories may be rightfully criticized today, but for what it's worth, back in the day, they were the source of most of the comic fandom's intrigue. This storyarc brings all of that to a head, building off of both what Penders did as well as what Bollers did in the previous storyline, and gave us one of the most compelling arcs the comic had ever seen, with higher stakes, great action, tragedy, and finally some of the promise that Knuckles' storyarc had spent forever HINTING at actually being realized. As hateable as Knuckles' dad is, Locke's sacrifice is legitimately heart wrenching, and what's more, "Enerjak Reborn" allowed one of the comics' best villains, Finitevus, to step forward. The Shadow Saga - This was Sonic Universe's first story arc, and it had a big responsibility: not just to launch a comic, but finally get Shadow and his associated characters to fit in to the Archie continuity. Ian succeeds with aplomb, not only finally telling us how Sonic Adventure 2's events happened in comic continuity, but fleshing Shadow out and giving him interaction with characters he'd been solely lacking. Not only does he get to play off Blaze, which is highly entertaining and something you never see in the games, but the story-arc manages to introduce Omega, who is the best version of Omega, in a story that resolves the comic version's fate of E-102 Gamma in a way that respects the character - something the earlier Adventure adaptation failed at completely. The lead-up to Sonic #225 - In this story, a lot of what Ian Flynn had been building comes to a head, with Robotnik reclaiming his empire along with his sanity, launching a new Death Egg, and attacking New Mobotropolis, which is currently being manipulated by Ixis Naugus to make him its new ruler. It has the feel of a season finale, as the Genesis arc immediately followed it. Robotnik freaking re-writing reality was unprecedented at the time, and one of his greatest, most significant victories. When everything gets back to normal, it takes everything the characters have to win, and Sally seemingly being gunned down and then later roboticized are two of the comic's best cliffhangers. Post reboot Champions - If you told me a Sonic Fighters adaptation that used AOSTH characters would be one of the comic's most entertaining stories ever, I'd have been very skeptical, but dammit, Champions just knocks it out of the drat park. It has great art, snappy dialogue, and the new version of Breezie as a conniving CEO is a surprisingly entertaining bad guy. This arc also brings Honey the Cat into the story, which completes her long march out of obscurity into a legitimate Sonic character. The Shattered World Crisis - This story encompasses many smaller arcs, including the one above, and gets a lot of flack. While I think it has a share of minuses, I think this story deserves a lot of credit for what it did to build the new comic universe after the reboot forced them to justify most of the setting and supporting cast. "TSWC" spans several years, is interrupted by a crossover, and several other interruptions, but in the end, it succeeds in what it was meant to do and not only gives us a new rogues gallery, but also new heroes that would have been great to see focus on later. While some argue that the Unleashed elements had to take a back seat and suffered as a result, I was satisfied with them in the end, and it was just as sad to see Chip go a second time. Spark of Life - You can credit this to Aleah Baker, Ian Flynn's wife, instead of Flynn himself. What the pre-reboot did with Nicole was one of the most well received parts of Ian Flynn's run, so this Universe storyarc had a lot to live up to. It definitely succeeds, showing a compelling friendship between Sally and Nicole, a legitimately heartwrenching origin for the latter, and philosophy from Big the freaking Cat. Definitely one of my favorite storylines for one of my favorite characters. Eggman's Dozen - Eggman is one of the best parts of Archie, and this storyline has him at the top of his game going against Naugus and his sister Wendy while focusing on him and his subordinates, the Egg Bosses. This book manages to flesh out more than 12 characters decently, which is a huge feat in and of itself, and the dynamic between Eggman and his subordinates is highly entertaining. Eggman is both at his funniest and his most terrifying, here. Honorable Mention
Mogul Rising Despite being part of some of Archie's stupidest stories, I legitimately like Mammoth Mogul. Ian finally manages to get him to work here in ways other writers only managed to play at, showing him as a master manipulator. It also ties up some continuity (like where the hell Mina got super speed from). The end where Mogul basically admits "hey, I'm immortal, I can just wait for Sonic and all his friends to die before taking over" is pretty smart writing. The Silver Saga - This is one of the darkest stories Archie has ever done, which shouldn't work at all but somehow manages to do so. Not only does it codify the Archie version of Silver as a character who works, it does what "Enerjak Reborn" did and manage to mine gold out of Ken Penders and his bullshit. Secret Freedom Fighters - While the main book labored under setting this arc up, this Universe story is pretty great, using Silver, Sally's brother Elias, Ixis Naugus, and Geoffery St. John all effectively while also reintroducing some older characters in ways that work. It also gives us Shard, the reformed original Metal Sonic, who wasn't around for long but managed to cement himself as one of Archie's most memorable characters. Scourge: Lockdown - Ian building Evil Sonic into a legitimately decent character is one of Ian's greatest accomplishments, and this arc is all about rebuilding him after everything he tried to do beforehand went up in flames. It also fleshes out the Destructix, who had been begging for it for ages but never seemed to get there. Chaotix Quest - The last storyline for the Chaotix for the reboot, this arc brings back Mighty while also giving him a past and backstory. The bits with his sister are equally heartwrenching and heartwarming, and the way the Chaotix work as a team and show their bond with each other builds off of what came before and shows that, hey, Penders did something right by laying the foundation for them as a team. Shadow Fall - "Shadow and Team Dark fight the last remnants of the Black Arms, who have created an evil counterpart of Shadow designed to be better than him in every way" sounds like a bad fanfic. What makes this storyarc work is that it leans into it, with Ian showing self awareness about it and making Eclipse not so much a parody of fan characters but someone who completely fails at being one despite trying as hard as possible to do so, coming off more as a kid who's completely in over his head than a cackling evil overlord in both this and follow-up arcs. It also manages to use the Black Arms effectively, which considering they're some of the worst villains from the games, is a hell of an accomplishment.
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Jun 9, 2017 18:25
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ImpAtom posted:It's going from bottom to top and it looks like the only shared connection is two family different brothers like a dozen generations back. Yeah, I mean. There's a lot you can criticize Penders for, they're separated by 12 generations and several hundred years. Them being "related" isn't really an issue at that point.
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Jun 9, 2017 18:32
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Augus posted:Eh it's not an unpopular opinion by any stretch and there's a very clear change in direction (and quality) after that special. The most hilarious thing with Amy wasn't just that she didn't do anything, it's that Penders actively went out of his way to shove her to the sideline. The story behind Mina Mongoose goes that Justin Gabrie, a man who I loving Despise wanted to introduce a new love interest for Sonic that could match up with Sally, someone that Sonic had something in common with. Now, keeping in mind that this is 1999 and Sonic's already been updated to his adventure art (and Eggman's just come back) rather than using the existing character who wasn't doing anything and has been in the comic since #25 they made Mina and decided her trait would be Speed and yeah. And in case you're thinking "Well, okay they didn't want to use her in that roll." She wasn't doing anything! In fact, when they finally did their Adventure adaption, Amy actually had to sit the whole event out! She got herself aged up by "Wishing on Sonic's Billionth Ring" (I think, it was a dumb excuse) and then actually spent the whole event being told "Amy, Don't do anything sit on your rear end." And basically doing exactly that. So... okay after that, it's clear she's a character now in the active sense in Sonic, so what do they do? They write her out of the story by sending her to go visit her cousin Rob O' The Hedge (Robin Hood Sonic basically) It wasn't until issue #132(!) loving 107 issues after she was introduced as a character into the comic, she finally got made a Freedom Fighter under Bollers pen. The moment Penders came back she was on the side lines. It literally wasn't until Ian Flynn became the writer that Amy Rose, who has been in the comic since issue #25 got to actually be part of the main cast in any way shape or form. I actually think she may have had less appearances than the Cabal of Secret Grandpa's. On the opposite coin, that also meant basically 107 issues of Amy not being written horridly so, ya know, small mercies.    Her and Silver are just such refreshing characters in the comic, Amy because she's not just Sonic's fangirl, she's an actual character with feelings and goals and a personality that isn't orbiting around the protagonist. And Silver... he's just a big loving goof and it's hilarious, he's so earnestly trying but he's such a loving failure. Like the first time he appears in the comic is in the middle of the Moebius storyline (Originally Anti-Mobius, one of Scourge's edicts upon becoming King was the force everyone to change their name to actually be names, to get further away from being Knock-off's of Mobius.) looking for Sonic and the guy comes in during the middle of the showdown with Scourge (Featuring Metal Sonic, Amy, Rosy the Rascal, Scourge, Rob O', and Shadow.) And he's just trying to ask which one of them is Sonic while they rumble.  He just looks so lost it makes me crack
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Jun 9, 2017 18:45
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Silver is a constant failure just further confirms he is Sonic the Hedgehog Trunks.
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Jun 9, 2017 18:50
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I will say, to be fair. As much as I enjoy Ian Flynn's writing, he does have a tendency to hit the meme button for easy comedy. Obviously every now and then it's kinda funny, but that's like the 8th "It's no use" joke involving Silver.  The joke that Silver is awful at his job never gets old though. In fact Silver is so awful at his job that each times he returns to the future, history has changed, except the world is still hosed up. Since he's ripple proof as a time traveller, he has to relearn all of history each time he comes back because inevitably something's changed, including poo poo HE'S SUPPOSED TO HAVE DONE.
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Jun 9, 2017 19:04
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Onmi posted:The joke that Silver is awful at his job never gets old though. In fact Silver is so awful at his job that each times he returns to the future, history has changed, except the world is still hosed up. Since he's ripple proof as a time traveller, he has to relearn all of history each time he comes back because inevitably something's changed, including poo poo HE'S SUPPOSED TO HAVE DONE.
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Jun 9, 2017 19:10
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One thing I like about the reboot is that they updated the non-game characters to be the same art style as those from the games. I mean, seriously watch that SatAM cartoon. Notice how it feels like Sonic wandered into some other cartoon and he doesn't belong there and feels out of place. Look at Princess Sally and characters like her. She isn't even the same art style as Sonic. Sonic is a bright color, has some weird mono-eye thing, has noodle arms and wears nothing but gloves and shoes. He's a funny animal, like Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse. Princess Sally and similar characters are basically straight up furries. Speaking about art styles, I think they should just go back to using Classic Sonic, all the time. The character just looks better with cute and chubby proportions. There's something about modern Sonic that looks kinda... ugly. He's lankier and has long, floppy spikes. A better looking Sonic is this Sonic Nendoroid toy. He's basically just Classic Sonic, but with green eyes and Modern Sonic's shoes.  I guess what I'm saying is just make him chibi again.
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Jun 9, 2017 19:12
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I kinda agree, tall and lanky sonic just looks kind of weird to me. He did even back when I was a kid, I distinctly remember liking the comics' art a lot less when he started getting taller. And then there was that weird loving section where Knuckles has the same proportions as Dr. Manhattan minus the dong...
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Jun 9, 2017 19:15
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Gammatron 64 posted:One thing I like about the reboot is that they updated the non-game characters to be the same art style as those from the games. Yeah, I mean literally here's Dulcy the Dragon Preboot  This image by the way is from the story where we learn that her boyfriend, the Chinese dragon Zan, beats her. And legitimately features the exchange Dulcy: Zan loves me Bunnie: Then why does he hit you? And here's Dulcy post-reboot  And the other awful thing is that... well... every Echidna is Knuckles and every Hedgehog is Sonic, except they have hair. Oh, side fun fact. You know Madonna? The prototype planned girlfriend type character for Sonic? Well she was brought into the Post-reboot universe  As a G.U.N. Agent, no word on any Hedgehog coitus because she only appeared in the one issue. But always found it funny.
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Jun 9, 2017 19:23
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Onmi posted:Yeah, I mean literally here's Dulcy the Dragon Preboot You know, I don't really think domestic abuse is tonally appropriate for a kid's comic about cartoon animals and feels out of place You know, like in the same way how Shadow the Hedgehog shooting people with a freakin' Uzi is super WTF
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Jun 9, 2017 19:28
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Shadow toting an AK 47 ruled way back when and it still rules today.
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Jun 9, 2017 19:33
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Shinjobi posted:Sometimes I think Cybershell and I are the same person because I just recently went back and read Mecha Madness myself, and apparently we fell off the comic wagon around the same time. - Read it from the beginning or near the beginning as a kid. Somewhere in the first 30 issues. - Got a subscription and/or got it from their comic store every month at that point. - Interest and love for the comic reached its peak with: Super Sonic vs. Hyper Knuckles, Battle Royale, Dark Legion and the launch of the Knuckles series, Mecha Madness and, most of all, Endgame. - Interest maintained but slowly started to wane after issue 50. Still read the comic but the spark from around issues 40-50 and all the specials wasn't there anymore. - Interest briefly spiked again around episode 75 with Robo-Robotnik returning as Eggman and the Sonic Adventure tie-in (which, in retrospect, was a pretty weak tie-in) - Continued to lose interest in the comic after the Sonic Adventure tie-in, had more or less totally fallen out of it by issue 100. Maybe bought issue 100 for sentimentality's sake but didn't really understand it all that much or care about what was going on. - Completely stopped caring by the time they were going into the 100s, maybe checked back every so often to see what stupid nonsense they (i.e. Penders) were doing now. - Many years later, heard about how the comic was under a new writer, Ian Flynn. - Saw images such as: Eggman beating the crap out of Sonic ("I GOT YOUR LIMIT RIGHT HERE"), Shadow's  face at Marine, Omega and Blaze, Evil Sonic re-imagined as Scourge, Rosy the Rascal, the Megaman crossover, etc. Realized, "oh man, this is actually kinda cool." - Either picked up the comic and started reading regularly again or just kinda checked it out so often, content in the knowledge that something they loved so much in their childhood had regained some shred of credibility. Quote this post if this is your general arc as a consumer of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic. 
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Jun 9, 2017 19:33
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I'm gonna be the voice of dissention and say I prefer modern Sonic. He just looks more athletic and like something I can picture running fast. That being said, Classic Sonic being round and chubby is kind of a Flanderized version of the design that's been perpetuated since Generations... which is based on concept and early art more than most of the stuff used in the Genesis era. You can see the start of the evolution into Modern Sonic in his CD cutscene designs, which flares his spikes out more. I also feel like his sprites started evolving him into a character with longer legs and a slimmer build, culminating in the version we see in S3&K being a bridge between Classic and what we got in Adventure. Honestly, the best versions of Classic Sonic's design are the ones where he's THINNER, with a smaller torso and more emphasis on the head and limbs, ala Sonic CD and how Tyson Hesse draws him. I also feel like a lot of Modern Sonic's look is to give him a distinct silhouette from behind. A consistent problem in the Genesis era was that "3D" perspectives in games like Sonic 2, S3&K, and 3D Blast made him look less like Sonic and more like a blue Christmas tree.
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Jun 9, 2017 19:38
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VJeff posted:- Read it from the beginning or near the beginning as a kid. Somewhere in the first 30 issues. H...hive mind?!?!
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Jun 9, 2017 19:53
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I still find it absolutely hilarious that Penders' new comic stars Knuckles' daughter, and she's still Knuckles' daughter, but he can't actually say that she is because he doesn't have the rights to Sega characters.
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Jun 9, 2017 19:56
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Except he came up with a Not!Knuckles in order to do that.
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Jun 9, 2017 19:58
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Knockles the Echyd'nya
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Jun 9, 2017 19:58
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VJeff posted:Quote this post if this is your general arc as a consumer of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic. I have never been a comic reader but the panel Omni posted of a bewildered Silver watching Sonic and Friends fight each other has convinced me that I have missed out on some delightful trash.
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Jun 9, 2017 20:09
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TFRazorsaw posted:Shadow Fall - "Shadow and Team Dark fight the last remnants of the Black Arms, who have created an evil counterpart of Shadow designed to be better than him in every way" sounds like a bad fanfic. What makes this storyarc work is that it leans into it, with Ian showing self awareness about it and making Eclipse not so much a parody of fan characters but someone who completely fails at being one despite trying as hard as possible to do so, coming off more as a kid who's completely in over his head than a cackling evil overlord in both this and follow-up arcs. It also manages to use the Black Arms effectively, which considering they're some of the worst villains from the games, is a hell of an accomplishment.[/list] It's really very good and the story is really a great example of how to write Shadow well. He spends all of this time brooding over a guy named "Eclipse the Darkling" who is very much just a really sad little kid who relies on animal friends, and it's all very played up. Eclipse is almost definitely a take on fan characters but without feeling embarassing or mean. The story is a testament to both how much Ian Flynn understands the Sonic world and his overall skill as a writer. The comic I always recommend folks start with is Treasure Team Tango, it's a Sonic Universe arc that focuses on a bunch of side characters getting into a giant standoff over an emerald. It's pre-reboot but doesn't really get into any characters far beyond the scope of the games, and it's a peek into a world where the various Sonic friends are distinct and fun and well-written instead of extraneous. Bean the Dynamite is there and he makes a Homestar Runner reference. It was tailor made for me. It's Amy-centric and Amy is so loving cool in Flynn's comics. TFRazorsaw posted:I'm gonna be the voice of dissention and say I prefer modern Sonic. He just looks more athletic and like something I can picture running fast. If you put a gun to my head I'd choose Classic Sonic just because I eat up that aesthetic, the halfway between Astro Boy & classic Mickey Mouse injected with vibrant, gaudy 90's radical colors. But I don't hate the modern designs and I think there's good things about them, mostly I love the Sonic Adventure official artwork so much. I think the problem with how modern Sonic games look is less the character designs, which I feel are strong, and more that there's not really any sort of aesthetic to Sonic's world once he leaves the Genesis. There are some visually strong stages (Pumpkin Hill, Hot Shelter, Speed Highway and City Escape are the ones that immediately come to mind) but they are the exception rather than the norm. There's not a lot of style to Adventure 1 thru 06. Sonic Unleashed & Colors are leagues better about the visual design of their games but still don't feel QUITE as distinct as the classics to me. And then Lost World just feels like it's aping Mario Galaxy too hard. nerdbot fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Jun 9, 2017 |
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Jun 9, 2017 20:13
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VJeff posted:- Read it from the beginning or near the beginning as a kid. Somewhere in the first 30 issues. Yeah this is basically what I did. And everyone else I think. Started at the beginning. Enjoyed the comic a ton. poo poo was getting hype around like, issue 30-50 and the various specials like Mecha Madness, Sonic & Knuckles, Triple Trouble, the Knuckles \ Tails \ Whatever mini-series, Endgame. This was probably like what, 1994-1995? Then after issue 50, the comic started taking a downward turn and I barely remember anything between issues 50-75 except for like, the noir one, Snivley summoning Eggrobos in jail, some desert city, some journey from the west Monkey guy and some midget Morgan Freeman. Then I got hyped for the return of Robotnik and the Sonic Adventure adaptation... but it wasn't that great. I can't even remember what the hell happened after that, other than some Mina Mongoose character showed up. I think the moral of the story is that if you're gonna read Sonic comics, read stuff from issues 1-50 and specials \ minis from around that time, then just stop and skip all the way to the Ian Flynn stuff. In a weird coincidence, the quality of the Sonic comics almost kind of mirrors the quality of the games made at the same time. The Sega Genesis era comics are fun, then in the Saturn era, Sonic games went kind of dormant aside from Sonic 3D Blast and R, and they killed off Robotnik in the books at around the same time. Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 sparked interest in Sonic again, but then the Dreamcast died and the quality of Sonic games spiraled downwards with Heroes, Shadow and then rock-bottom with 2006. Then sometime afterwards, Sega made Colors and Generations and Ian Flynn rebooted the comics and they started being good again. It's really interesting how that all coincides.
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Jun 9, 2017 20:15
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Chibs posted:So it looks like the GHZ boss is going to be Death Egg Robot. What the hell? Did that magazine screw up and leak that picture?
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Jun 9, 2017 20:23
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I'd argue that Lost World's problem is that it's leaning too hard on the Classic design sensibilities than comparisons to Galaxy. Not to mention all of these different visual elements not syncing up very well. Look at the world designs; in the desert zone you go from a sandy ruin to falling through a giant honeycomb. Literally what? But I disagree that the modern era lacks visual identity. The thing is, each game has its OWN look. Adventure mashes up South American style locales with New York while giving it a more modern anime spin. Adventure 2 has a grungy sci Fi look. Heroes tries to modernize the more classic designs, with goofier and more colorful robots that have a bit more of a "cool" factor all the while. Then you have the lovingly reverent homages to real world locales filtered through a Pixar filter with a dash of fantastic elements like dragon roadways in Unleashed, and the off the wall fantasy theme park aesthetics of Colors. The reason why 06 fails, visually, is that it tried to be something else. It wants to look like Final Fantasy, not a cartoon, which is the common theme these games all share.
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Jun 9, 2017 20:24
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Mmm yeah, I think you're right. I think that my problem is just that those games don't really share much in common visually, less than that they don't have any identity. I was a big Sega kid growing up and moved onto the Gamecube once the Dreamcast died, and I had this revelation that stuck with me that all the Mario games had a distinct feeling that they shared a universe even when they toyed with visuals--Paper Mario 2 still felt like it took place in the same world as Mario Kart because they shared a visual identity. Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 both look completely different from each other and visually have little in common. That doesn't necessarily make it fair to say they're visually weak. I'm realizing I never really updated that opinion for the last 12 or 13 years or thought about it any harder than this. The ugliest Sonic design is definitely the western classic Sonic with his terrible sphere head.
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Jun 9, 2017 20:43
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Andre Banzai posted:What the hell? Did that magazine screw up and leak that picture? The E3 demo has 7 stages, both acts of Green Hill & Chemical Plant, Studiopolis 1, Flying Battery 1 and Mirage Saloon 2. Green Hill has its boss in the demo. Technically, a few journalists have fought the Green Hill Act 2 boss at previous press events but weren't allowed to talk about it or show it off; I think the boss has been in every screening of the game so far but it just wasn't permitted to be discussed, because all the footage of Green Hill 2 always stops right before passing into the boss screen. If anything I'm surprised it's stayed hidden for so long with this in mind.
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Jun 9, 2017 20:47
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Gammatron 64 posted:I think the moral of the story is that if you're gonna read Sonic comics, read stuff from issues 1-50 and specials \ minis from around that time, then just stop and skip all the way to the Ian Flynn stuff. There's a reading guide that basically says exactly that.  Your point is definitely well taken about the comic really falling down a well around the same time the Dreamcast died. I actually was curious and went and looked this up. The first Ian Flynn/Tracy Yeardley! issue was 160. March 2006, eight months before 06. So I guess you could say while Sonic was setting his feet back under him while saddled with a lame gimmick in Unleashed, Potto was fixing the comic while sorting through all of the leftover built-up nonsense from Penders. TFRazorsaw posted:Then you have the lovingly reverent homages to real world locales filtered through a Pixar filter with a dash of fantastic elements like dragon roadways in Unleashed, This was the best one, btw. They shoulda stuck with this. Unleashed felt like they'd found a real identity aesthetically and Colors was a fun side-story but Generations and Lost World feel like big steps backwards from that.
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Jun 9, 2017 21:06
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nerdbot posted:Mmm yeah, I think you're right. I think that my problem is just that those games don't really share much in common visually, less than that they don't have any identity. I was a big Sega kid growing up and moved onto the Gamecube once the Dreamcast died, and I had this revelation that stuck with me that all the Mario games had a distinct feeling that they shared a universe even when they toyed with visuals--Paper Mario 2 still felt like it took place in the same world as Mario Kart because they shared a visual identity. Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 both look completely different from each other and visually have little in common. That doesn't necessarily make it fair to say they're visually weak. I'm realizing I never really updated that opinion for the last 12 or 13 years or thought about it any harder than this. Yeah that's true. It's hard to believe that the Green Hill Zone and Station Square are on the same world or even universe. I think the Sonic X cartoon actually explains this in that Sonic & friends are from Möbius and came to Earth before Sonic Adventure. Also yeah, the western Sonic designs are in fact the worst. Western Sonic is almost the same, but he has a Mohawk instead of 3 rows of spikes. I prefer Classic Eggman over the western Robotnik designs too. And like I said, the designs in SatAM are all kinds of WTF and do not mesh with Sonic at all. SatAM barely even has anything to do with the actual games and is an extremely loose adaptation. Then that stuff carried over into the Archie comic, which is an odd combination of SatAM, the games and AoStH.
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Jun 9, 2017 21:12
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Gammatron 64 posted:I think the Sonic X cartoon actually explains this in that Sonic & friends are from Möbius and came to Earth before Sonic Adventure. But yet, Eggman is also from the Mobius dimension, but finds out his grandpa was from the Earth dimension, and they briefly bring this up as a major plot twist and nothing ever comes of it. I never really liked this explanation for a lot of reasons not worth getting into. Sonic X is like, the depths of Sonic to me. There's not really anything exceptionally bad but it is so profoundly mediocre and confused. Sonic is a weird hedonist who doesn't really want to do anything, ever. There's a bizarre episode titled "The Adventures of Knuckles and Hawk" where Knuckles teams up with a completely generic archaeologist man named Hawk, and they find a Chaos Emerald. Later in the show there's a Sonic Battle adaptation that's a DBZ tournament arc and Hawk, this completely generic man, is one of the competitors. Tails wants to gently caress a flower. There's a man who drives a Formula 1 racecar and he's also a cop and the racecar is his cop car, and he gets mad that Sonic exists because he hates that something is faster than his car. Evil Sonic is hyped up in a lot of promotional material but only shows up for like 3 seconds because Eggman calms him back down into Normal Sonic. Sonic shrugs off a meeting with the president to take a physically disabled young girl on in adventure, and in a battle scene he uses this girl's wheelchair to go very fast, and despite the weird tastelessness of Sonic using a disabled person for stunts I saw a Tumblr post once about how progressive Sonic X was for this scene. The famous Sonic vs. Shadow final boss fight from SA2 is just them running on a treadmill and making faces at each other. The dub is where Mike Pollock gets his start but he sounds completely weak at it, and it's the weird sensation of simultaneously very definitely being the iconic Eggman voice and also not at all Eggman. Rouge the Bat has a bath scene. There's a baseball episode where they all play baseball for a Chaos Emerald that is unironically the one good episode of the entire show. Sonic X is insane. It's not the same exact flavor of insane as Penders or 06 but it's very far out there and it amazes me that it exists because it was so directly crafted by Sega. While it isn't crazy for the same reasons 06 is, I'd say there's a similar causation--Sega just had some really buckwild ideas of what Sonic the Hedgehog needed to be at the time that they just wouldn't back down on.
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Jun 9, 2017 21:29
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nerdbot posted:The E3 demo has 7 stages, both acts of Green Hill & Chemical Plant, Studiopolis 1, Flying Battery 1 and Mirage Saloon 2. Green Hill has its boss in the demo. Ah, ok. Thanks for the answer. Haha, that's kinda funny, though. Sonic 2's last freaking boss as Green Hill's boss. Amusing.
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Jun 9, 2017 21:30
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Kurieg posted:If you're talking about the bit with the red line, no, one of the kids has children but they didn't identify a spouse. every time i see this image i remember that this isn't the first time i've seen it and it reads bottom to top. but never after thinking, "how do edmund and dmitri have kids together"
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Jun 9, 2017 22:47
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njCGiDqFVGU
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Jun 9, 2017 22:50
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You know, for some reason, this reminds me. Ken Penders loves to talk about how progressive he is, but I'm remembering now that of all the Guardians, the only one to die on the job was the only one (out of 12 generations) who happened to be a woman.
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Jun 9, 2017 22:51
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TFRazorsaw posted:You know, for some reason, this reminds me. Ken Penders loves to talk about how progressive he is, but I'm remembering now that of all the Guardians, the only one to die on the job was the only one (out of 12 generations) who happened to be a woman. It doesn't seem very fair to blame him for Tikal when she's all Sega's fault. Unless there's another one?
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Jun 9, 2017 22:57
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 17:33 |
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I don't know much about the sonic comix and I was kicking back on this lovely friday evening with a nice big glass of lemonade while enjoying Cybershell's sonic comic video and I almost did a loving spit take at this part so I paused the video and came to post about this here immediately. What the gently caress is this.   This raises so many more questions about Sonic's eyes than it answers.
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Jun 9, 2017 22:58
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