The newest previews for various Sonic comics have just come out and they show a number of very interesting things for both long term readers and new readers to the comic.
According to the cover of a future Sonic Super Special, there will be a comic book adaptation of Sonic Lost World, the sample text that came with it claims that the story will be 20 pages long and be the longest archie videogame adaptation to date.
Long terms fans of the comic might find the next bit of news more interesting. For the last year or two, there have been a number of rather noticable changes in the comic, some subtle, others are quite obvious. Why is this? Well, some believe that Sega might finally be trying to bring the comic more in line with the games, others suspect it’s to do with legal reasons against people who frankly I don’t want to give any attention to. Whats the truth? Probably a combination of them both.
Anyway, one major change which was announced around a year ago was that the long running character Sally would be getting huge design change. Looking at the preview images for the comics, it would seem that she’s not the only one whose had a design change.
The following is the cover for issue 254.
As noticed by a number of SSMB members. Along with Sonic, there appears to be two supporting cast memebers there, Rotor and Antoine, whilst Rotor looks slightly different, the biggest change is Antoine, it would appear as if he’s outgrown his jacket.
Also if you take a look at the Super Special cover again, you’ll notice that it has the line ‘Your official guide to the all-new Sonic Comic Universe’ written on it. In addition to that it has other supporting cast members on it which seem to support the theory theres been a design change.
Apart from Sally which we already knew about. You can also see the character Bunnie who now has her robotic arm back as well as a few other changes.
So anyone like the new designs? Anyone gonna pick up the issues to see whats going on?
Source: SSMB members.
Well it makes sense with Bunnie considering the lack of robotic stuff gone now.
But robot Sally and comatose Antoine….only time will tell.
Anyone else notice that these look really similar to Ian’s other M comic?
If it’s aiming to more closely follow the games then it would make sense for Antoine to lose his jacket, considering male characters are “nude” except for shoes, gloves and accessories (Charmy being the exception).
LMAO, trying redesign the crappy Dic characters to make them look like real Sonic characters is a waste of time. You cannot polish a turd. They should just end the comic and start a new one that’s actually faithful to the games. Archie’s Megaman comics prove that Ian can write a faithful video game adaptation, but when it comes to Sonic, he’s held back by having to stick to the dreadful SatAM-based Archie Sonic continuity. Which is a pity, because we probably would get a decent Sonic comic if he was allowed to start anew.
There are a lot of people who like the comic. There’s a reason it’s the longest running licensed comic of all time and sells better than MegaMan. I have quite a bit of medical stuff going on, and the comics have been the one thing that has helped me through each day and given me something to look forward to. Everyone has an opinion, but please try to be a bit more respectful for those who actually do follow and like the series.
Yes, these comics are like gold to me. Remember when Sonic hit a major low in the late nineties? Sonic 3D Blast didn’t impress anyone, no one could find the dang Sonic the Fighters game, Knuckles Chaotix was frying everyone’s 32x systems, Sonic Extreme was canceled, Sonic Christmas Special made no sense, Sonic Jam turned out to be just a compilation and Sonic R was, well … Sonic R. Well during that low point all my friends turned their backs on Sonic. My local Sonic fan club disbanded and I was the only one who still cared about the Hedgehog hero. I believe it was because I read the Sonic comics that kept me hanging on to the franchise. Those stories gave me my fix of hedgehog adventure and excitement. Sonic Adventure was my big pay off. I have loyally followed these comics for 20 straight years and this reboot makes me very sad. I wanted to see them save Sally, I wanted to see Antoine wake up from his Coma. I wanted to see Bunnie join her uncle in the Dark Legion to get her cybernetics back. I wanted to see Naugus get overthrown and defeated. I wanted to see Regina figure out her Snively was a fake. I wanted Knuckles to travel the galaxy in search of Julie Sue and the other lost Echidnas. I wanted Mobius to last forever.
Wow..now I’m depressed just thinking about all of the loose ends that might not ever be tied :/ I’ve only been collecting since 149, but as stupid as it sounds, this kept me going some days. The biggest issue I had with Worlds Collide was the fact that the main story line in both STH and Universe were put on hold for 4 months. Now, there’s a large possibility that the story we’ve all been eagerly awaiting to get back to post-Mega Man we’ll never get to read. Like I said, I’m kind of waiting for the Sonic panel at the San Diego Comic Con before I get too upset, but this definitely isn’t looking good for people like you and I :/
Let’s not get carried away, I think it is more likely just a new look. After all, if they were doing a complete reboot then I doubt all these Archie characters would be featured rather than game characters.
I am just as depressed as you are about the changes… mostly sally though. She just doesn’t look like the same character anymore…
I honestly prefer the comics to the games. Sure the games are fun but they have to substance. The writings crap, the stories are lackluster and has no development at all. The comic knows how to use characters and uses them well with grand stories and strong writing. If it was faithful, it would be very boring.
I totally agree. The video games have been very mediocre since Sonic 06
In terms of story, it really comes down to what people find more interesting(NOT) but really down to if you like what stories the comics come up with.
The writing has been at worst mediocre, but its been consistently decent lately .
Development…? If they decide to do more in depth stories, and focus a bunch on continuity development doesn’t really NEED to happen.
If there’s something that actually brings need to more characters, then the use of more of them would be necessary.
From what I’ve been reading lately, the comic doesn’t really seem all that interesting.
Obvious trolling is obvious.
to 4ch with you, foul beast!
Does this mean that the Sonic Comics are getting a reboot like the DC universe did?
I’m…keeping an open mind. I don’t mind the redesigned characters, that’s just aesthetic. The thing I’m worried about is the continuity. I’ve read the comic for over 8 years straight, read every issue of every comic published by Archie. I’ve become attached to certain characters, and specifically read the comics for their uniqueness. The fact that all of that could be drastically altered or taken away entirely has me a bit worried. Like I said, I complained about Mega Man and was worried with Genesis and Endangered Species and those all turned out fine (I actually ended up loving the MM cross over so much I’m now playing Mega Man games lol). But I’m very worried, it appears as if everything that happened leading up to Worlds Collide was for nothing. My first impression of the redesign is I prefer the old character design, obviously as a long-time comic reader. I’ll reserve my impressions until I read it. Right now, I’m VERY anxious just for Countdown to Chaos to arrive before freaking out lol
I am hoping this is some sort of temporary thing that is a result of the crossover…maybe a stop-gap tactic to hold off until they can get things sorted out legally.
This is going to sound so stupid, but my first thought when I saw this was: how come Sonic doesn’t get a design change too? XD
Sometimes with stories that last a long time, characters personalities or appearances need to change in order to keep the audiences interest. That’s why Archie’s sonic comic has been around for so long, because its story is always evolving. I doubt Archie would do anything with the story that would upset its older fans. I’ve personally been reading the comics for several years and I have especially enjoyed some of the recent story arcs. Like the secret freedom fighters. The pirate arc that is going to be in Sonic Universe looks like it is going to be good as well.
Oh god, I forgot the Secret Freedom Fighters. What’s going to happen to them after the crossover? I really don’t want them to go. (Especially Shard, he’s just too awesome to get rid of.)
*groans* I knew this was gonna happen ever since Ian let Sally’s redesign slip out.
And as I expected, these designs are trash too.
If you’re gonna make a vain attempt to fix what isn’t broken, at least try to do a decent job. The current art style int he comics already made them look like Sonic characters. Now they just look…like cheap knock-offs of their original selves.
Not impressed. Do not approve.
But there’s nothing I can do about it, so I’ll just vomit everytime I see them in the new issues. – –
Can you please elaborate on why you think the design are ‘trash’?
I personally think they are pretty solid and now keep up with the Sonic design bible, finally. The Old style was entrenched in 90’s/ 00’s style and simply dont fit the Sonic world, thats why characters that have been around for a long time get a redeisgn every 10 years. Its just good form (Example: Sonic, Spyro, Crash ect)
This is all because of Ken Penders… screwed everything up with his selfishness. 🙁
How is Ken responsible for this when Ian Flynn is the one redesigning them? Ken was responsible for something entirely different.
Archie is redesigning them, Flynn has nothing to do with the decisions made in these comics.
Idk, I just like to blame Ken Penders for all my problems xD. I know he’s the source of other issues, but I get the feeling some things on the comic would have never happened if Ken didn’t start trying to take a bunch of characters back.
But anyways, old news is old news.
technically, Flynn doesn’t redesign. He’s the writer. Either Yardley, or Ben Bates probably made these.
I f anyone wants to blame anybody, blame SEGA. They’re the ones who wants the comic to go in line with their games…can’t blame them though.
Ken Penders sued for charaters that Archie was using that he created for the series in the first place. I don’t know why the judge ruled in his favor when he created the characters for the company. Because of this a lot of characters have to be taken out Therefore the story line has to be re-done. No Ian Did not redesign them the writer is not allowed to redesign it is a team that redesigns alone with Sega. Sega wanted the redesign.
The first sonic the hedgehog comic I ever read was issue #200 when I was a child in fourth grade. Back then, I wasn’t nearly the full fledged Sonic fan that I am now so I knew zero things about Sonic’s history. Everything I found was new to me. I enjoyed everything the sonic games had to offer, especially the characters and understandable storyline, so when I read that comic, I was immediately dissatisfied. The entire time reading the comic, I felt uncomfortable and confused. All the original comic characters dumbfounded me and the complicated storyline that I jumped into was too hard for me to follow or catch onto. After that, I decided to not read the comics at all and instead play Sonic advance 2 over and over again. I thought that what the games had was so perfect so the fact that things were very different in the comic was like a strikeout. 41 issues later, last September, I was walking around my local market and found Sonic the hedgehog comic #241. Being older and being convinced by the cover artwork, I decided to give the comics another chance. I have been following the comics sequentially since then. I was immediately sucked into the comic for some main reasons, one being that there was the team fighters which consists of Sonic, Amy Rose, and Tails (and T-pup). Those characters were all from the games so I felt comfortable.(Not T-pup, but he doesn’t count) Overtime the entire cast grew on me and the story just kept getting better. Long story-short, I finally got into the comic and I believe everything is perfect right now, but they are going to change it so it sucks for me.
T-Pup is from Tails Adventure, for what it’s worth. ;P
I should have known that because I bought the virtual console Tails Adventure on the 3DS recently and I remember saying to myself, “Hey T-pup is from this game!” But I suppose I was tired when I was writing that post so I forgot.
This is why I think this reboot is a GOOD thing. This will finally bring fans who have been hesitant because of such a large cast and background. While long time comic fans will be upset that a lot of their favorite, but rarely used characters such as Lupe, Julie-Su, Lien-Da and Robbo the Hedge, fans of the original SatAM characters and fans of the games should be happy as they will get a lot more focus.
I actually like the redesigns, at least the way they look on the Super Special cover. Very SEGASonic-ish.
I like Antoine’s design
I have nothing against the Archie characters, I actually like a few – like Antoine, Bunny, Rotor, Mina
…But I keep getting the feeling that the comics would make alot more sense if they remove the characters. It’ll avoid the confusion as these comic characters do not exist in the game universe. I always found it kinda weird in a way because the comics and games are way too different. Why can’t we have one Sonic universe everyone sticks to now?
I’m looking at some of these comments, and I can’t help but facepalm. So many people are letting a simple redesign get to them. Some of you are openly saying that the entire series is going to suck because the characters look a little different. It’s “green eyes” all over again.
I’m just disappointed that the whole story arc we were following was just leading to a redesign…couldn’t they have done something more I don’t know… interesting.
Wait so this whole story arc was just a build up to redesign the characters…..that’s a disappointment, I thought we would finally be moving forward.
I’m 99% sure this is much more than a re-design. It says “All-New Sonic Comic Universe”, if it were just new character designs it would say “new character designs”. All through worlds collide the characters have been hinting that messing around with time and space can have permanent effects on the real world. Then in Sonic 250 they had a teaser image of mobius falling apart, fire and destruction everywhere, Angel Island in pieces. It all adds up to a reboot.
Im really sorry of the changes i made.
But, what’s done is done.
Me, Paul, and the group have struggled of how we can end this war.
But as you know, we cant seem to find the right choice of what to do
So keep being way past cool
______Ian Flynn
Well, I respect what you’ve had to do, and it’s a shame to see the old world go. I wasn’t actually too surprised, seeing as the teaser in STH#250 showed us that Mega Man’s world will live (continue as normal), while Sonic’s will die (which I guessed meant a reboot). It may take some getting used to, but as long as these characters and stories continue to grab me (which they are so far), then I’ll continue to support the comic, Ian. Keep up the good work!
BTW, that was a message for the actual Ian Flynn, not the faker.
Thanks, Fake Ian Flynn!
I never got an account-activation email when trying to register at your bumbleking forums !
Nice impression.
In every issue, it always starts with “a world unique & beyond what you know from the Sega games”. What is wrong with variety? Every time I read the comic, I’m always expected to be surprised. If the comic ends up “exactly” like the games, it’ll get really predictable, stale & boring because it wouldn’t be any different from the games. If I wanted to experience the games, I’d just play the games. Sure there’s nothing wrong with the comics having more references to the games, but take away much of what made the comic kept running for 20 years & it turns into a boring advertisement with no soul in any story. I know there are people who either absolutely adore or utterly despise the characters exclusive to the comic (& there are other “fans” who draw “questionable” artwork on various sites) but to many people, they, the characters, are the reason they always look forward to future issues. Sometimes the comic-exclusive characters are the reason they move a story along. Pitting these characters against odds that may seem impossible, I think, makes the stories & characters more interesting. Take that away & turn them into invincible superheroes, kind of like the games, takes away that sense of interest. The “fans” would rather have Sonic & co. do nothing else but do the same thing over & over. The “fans” also say the comics make them feel uncomfortable & confused because they’ve created this tiny comfort zone from the games & they aren’t willing to accept anything else. And people say the “older fans” don’t accept change?
Oh, speak of the devil, I was just redesigning the FF crew last night. The first thing that springs to mind when I see this is: Radical. It’s making big changes that I, personally would never consider doing. Antoine’s coat, Rotor’s Hat, Sally’s hair – these are all unique and distinctive parts of the characters’ designs. I have to admire Archie for taking this bold move away from this, but at the same time I’m worried they’ll end up in some weird kind of limbo – “these aren’t the freedom fighters we grew up with, and they’re not official Sonic characters, so why should we care?” This is what I fear most.
rotor’s … hat?
don’t they look more like goggles?
Exactly, that’s the point I was making. They replaced his hat with goggles, as they remove Antoine’s coat and changed sally’s hair. They removed an iconic part of the character design, to attempt to appear more modern and Sonic.
…Personally I think I makes them look like really bad fan characters…
My heart is pumping of joy for these redesigns. The fact that most of the characters due to you know what have returned at last. I thank thy for the covers 🙂
The Sally and Bunnie redesign might have my sold but the Antoine and Rotor redesigns I’m not too sold on yet. I’ll have to wait til I see it in print.
The only one that REALLY bothers me is Ant, Its a big change and his outfit isn’t even blue anymore, Doesn’t FEEL like him. BUT what I’m mostly concerned about is if this will continue the story from last Sonic issue before the megamancross over.. or are they throwing 20 years of sonic out the window.. I hope not.
Sonic comics have been loved for its well written stories, vast universe and characters, beyond what you see from the sega games.
If this is a whole new world in general where its just the freedom fighters and sega characters I can’t help but feel heart heavy
there’s a reason why this comic was so popular for so long. There are huge fanbases for the likes of Shard, Scourge, the secretfreedom fighters and different stories not revolving around sonic. It makes the world feel bigger and not so small.
I don’t want a clone of the video game stories because I really dislike what they did with sonics personality and how they treat it in general BUT I love the gameplay. I read the comics for the sonic personality I grew up with and more serious storytelling, that way I can get the best of both worlds. If its just a redesign I’ll live, If its just penders characters gone, I’ll survive. But all of 20 years.. thats a real kick in the nuts for long time readers.. and JUST keeping the main satam base wont help..
Here’s how I think they are going to explain the design changes. When the first Genesis Wave subsided after it affected the prime zone, a few alterations were made. Half of the planet’s population lost it’s immunity to roboticization bestowed by the Bem, Bunnie became de-roboticizable again after having her roboticized parts replaced, the spirits inside Ixis Naugus woke up and began to haunt him, and the Chaos Emerald that caused the Genesis Wave in the first place ended up in Mega Man’s world. The second Genesis Wave affected three worlds, the Prime Zone, the Sol Zone and Mega Man’s world, so the alterations after the second one could be bigger than the first, like say, re-juvinating Rotor, that would explain him. Antoine would also be healed because of the second wave, and his jacket would have been burned by his fight with Metal Sonic, Bunnie went to the Great Desert Dark Egg Legion’s base and they secretly legionized her without Eggman’s knowledge, and finally Sally, due to her modifications as Mecha Sally, once she gets de-roboticized, she will get changed to her new appearance rather than her old one.
That’s definately a possibility, but it could also go like this: What if the second Genesis Wave causes some events to have never happened? I can’t think of a reason which would explain Rotor’s re-juvination, but maybe Antoine never fell into a coma by Metal Sonic. Maybe Bunnie never lost her robot parts. Maybe Sally never got roboticised and thus, Silver’s future wasn’t ruined. I dunno, we’ll just have to wait and see.
At the end of the Chaotixs Quest story arc in Sonic Universe you see a silhouette of Bunny who may be asking Beauregard to legionize her. So i guess she might of got legionized by her uncle or something maybe.
And another thing, many people including myself are considering the upcoming Sonic Lost World to be the beginning of the next era of Sonic, you know, as classified in Sonic Generations with the Classic Era (Sonic 1, 2, CD and 3&K), the Dreamcast Era (Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Sonic Heroes and Shadow’s game) and the current Modern Era (Sonic Next-Gen, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic 4, Sonic Colors and, of course, Sonic Generations). So, one of the possible reasons why Archie is doing this, is because they are transitioning to the next era of Sonic. They have done so before with the transitions of previous eras. The transition from the Classic Era to the Dreamcast Era began in issue 62 and ended in issue 80 with the return of Robo-Robotnik and his transition into his Eggman body, Sonic getting changed into his current appearence by the Super Emerald and Amy’s wish to be a little older. The transition from the Dreamcast Era to the Modern Era began in issue 118 and ended in issue 169 with Eggman’s de-roboticization, Sonic’s one year in space, and the whole Anonymous fiasco. So what we have seen since issue 230 could very well be the transition from the current Modern Era to the new one. The Archieverse characters got some redesigns during these transitions, though some of them were changed back (Sally getting a haircut and it being revealed that the new design for Antoine actually being Anti-Antoine or Patch as we call him now), so that’s a possibility.
Why does no one ever count that transition era of bad and weird 3d Sonic games? Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic R, Sonic the Fighters, Sonic Jam (tiger Games), sonic schoolhouse.
cuz they’re spin-offs
Up until recently, and I don’t know why it changed, but Sonic 3D Blast was considered one of the main games. Plus don’t forget the REAL Sonic title for the Saturn ended up being cancelled (which would’ve been a proper title). So yeah, the series seem to be in spurts. Goes off strong, then sputters a little bit. Repeat. Repeat.
I consider all that to be part of the Classic Era.
“Longest video game adaptation”? Um… are we talkin’, like, in terms of one-shot comics, or just in general?
Because I think the SA1 arc has Sonic Lost World has it beat for longest adaptation in the comic’s history, I mean, it spanned across six issues, and a 48-page special.
But if we ARE talking one-shot comics, then, well, the Sonic 3D Blast adaptation was 48 pages long.
Just sayin’.
It makes so much sense. Because @ the end of issue 247 a genesis wave came and Sonic’s last words were, Oh no “this is”. So really this will probably tell if the genesis wave cause this.
OR SEGA WANTED TO RUIN A AWESOME STORY
I agree with DK fan. Archie comics has always changed the design of the characters along with the Sonic era’s and I think that these new designs are really cool. The story title intrigues me as well, “countdown to chaos”. The redesigns are really cool and I think the least we can do is give them a chance. The comics have been heading in a very good direction as of late and I feel like the amazing writers and artists are at the top of their game.
And once again, the community reaction to any changes is 90% loud bitching while the rest 10% is actual constructive criticism.
*ready for hate comments* To be honest, I never was into Archie. It isn’t bad by any means, but I just never was a comic person in general. Though, I did read all the comic pages you can see in Sonic Mega Collection… I just never got into it. I do want to see Sonic & Mega Man though. The comics, to me, are an absolute mess in terms of cast, and overall plot. I don’t know, say what you will about its benefits (such as keeping older characters, and expanding on them) but there are just too many characters, and arcs, and… random forms that honestly look like a horribly confusing fan-fiction I see on the homepage of deviantART every day. Don’t get me wrong, I like characters like Antoine, and Bunnie… but overall, there is just tons of stuff I either think is just stupid, or way too huge and confusing for Sonic. I remember reading a comic about Sonic fighting a killer whale (teehee) while tons of other characters I don’t know watch. Then he goes and has dinner with a whole table of random animals I can’t describe… with Silver. A lot of what is going on never made much sense to me. Turbo Tails….? What the… Titan Tails? Oh God. Ummm…… Green Knuckles… Okay. You see, it has ups and all… but when it’s suggested they may change designs of characters, I don’t see what the fuss is about. It’s just as Green Eyes was. However, I would like to point out something that DOES catch my eye. The “all-new” Sonic comic universe thing. If that is a reboot like tons of you seem to be self-confirming… then… well… what the heck? I’m not entirely even sure if they rebooted in the past, regardless of how many rumors I heard of it.. but… how interesting. I will say that I like what they did with the Genesis saga, or crossing over with Mega Man, or not getting the Black Arms so involved.. But Archie has just never been my thing… and… Please, someone inform me what the hubbub is about with this.
The plot thickens…
Sally’s design looks horrible!!!ok i’ve seen this design in a concept art but i didn’t expect them to keep it! what happened to her other new design by ben yates???
Hmm.. I’ll wait til I catch up with the series before reading this.. I don’t want to spoil what happens to Antoine, Bunny and the rest of the crew.. (although I already know about Sallys re-design)
Huh… I didn’t even notice Sally was in her new design until I read the last bit.
You know I really liked sally’s old look with just the vest and the boot’s and 2 eye lashes but now………………sally’s new look I just don’t like. Because she has gloves blue cuffs on her gloves and a slight different hair look vest zipped up together with black shirt in side of the vest. black shorts and white socks at the top and at the bottom of the boots dark blue spot on it with white outline around it. That’s the thing I just don’t like about the new look of sally.
That’s the thing why couldn’t Sega just leave it the way it was before? With the vest opened and the boot’s just normal with the hair before but not the hair from 1994 and yeah why? The new look of sally just doesn’t surprise me……AT ALL!
I’m just going to have to deal with sally’s new look and maybe she’ll be better then the old one let’s just wait and see. And also maybe sally’s new look will get her into the video games!
I wonder how the Lost World adaptation is going to interpret the dialogue of the Deadly Six. I dunno how lines like “LIE DOWN AND DIE!” would go down with the kiddies who grab the comic off grocery shelves for a quick peek.
The only redesigns I have a problem with are Antoine’s and Rotor’s. Antoine just looks…weird, whereas Rotor just looks buff now, which is not really what Rotor should be; he’s a stereotypical tech nerd. I’m just hoping these are all temporary things caused by the Genesis wave, ones which Sonic can reverse like how he did at the end of the Genesis Arc. Besides, I think the whole thing would be reversed. Have you seen the state of Mobius in one of the previews featured in Worlds Collide?! It’s completely wrecked!
Hey, you used to write magnificent, but the last few posts have been kinda boring… I miss your super writings. Past few posts are just a little out of track! come on!
As someone who has always had an interest in the comics, but have been very hesitant to actually get into them due to the intimidating backlog of reading I’d have to do just to be up to date, a reboot is a very inviting thing to me. I know it’s going to disappoint a lot of long time fans who have been keeping up with it for quite some time (especially due to the fact that many loose ends will still remain from what I understand, which is kind of lame), and that’s perfectly understandable. I sympathize with those people if the reboot happens, but I feel a lot more people (myself included) would feel much less intimidated getting into the comics if it were to happen. That’s just my two cents though, as an onlooker from the outside of the comic fanbase. ^^
I’m sure that the redesigns are permanent but if Archie notices that they went too far with the new designs they will evolve back into a more recognizable look. Personally I like what’s been done with Rotor and Bunnies’ redesign. If you’re wondering about Bunnies’ redesign you have to see the photos from Comic Con. It’s on this site. Also I don’t get all the hate behind these redesigns. I mean I get it, I just don’t understand why it’s so strong. Open mind people, Countdown to Chaos is still counting down.
Love the designs. The fit the Sonic design guide.
I’m so stumped how people keep saying its too ‘radical’ or ‘too far’ over a lack of coat or done up vest? Are you serious?
Maybe take a step back?