We finally get the missing piece of the story puzzle for this week’s comic preview!
This is the last Sonic issue before we unite for the worlds crossing over, and Arcade Sushi delivers a hint of the story that lies between Sonic Comic Origins #6 and Sonic Universe #75. In Sonic the Hedgehog #272, Sonic and the Freedom Fighters finally make it to Apotos with Knuckles and Chip in tow. Sonic and the light Gaia head off to find their first Gaia Gate to figure out how to restore their shattered planet. But there’s plenty of signs that a certain metal somebody is back for revenge against the blue blur! And the Freedom Fighters aren’t exactly throwing tea parties for Knuckles when they come face to face with a titanic force…dare I say of a Dark Gaian nature? This is ” A Ray of Hope”.
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #272
Script: Ian Flynn
Art: James Fry, Evan Stanley, Terry Austin, John Workman and Gabriel Cassata
Cover: Edwin Huang
Metal Sonic Game Art Variant Cover: Provided by SEGA
Time is up—the WORLDS UNITE crossover event is almost upon us! “A Ray of Hope”: As Sonic and the Freedom Fighters continue their journey to save the shattered planet, Sonic and Chip journey to Apotos to uncover the secrets of the Gaia Gate! Meanwhile, Knuckles and the Freedom Fighters take on a TITANIC challenge of their own! Does Sonic have a hope in saving the world? Will battle tear the freedom fighters apart first? Find out the answers to these and more exciting questions as our heroes journey to the much-awaited crossover event of the year—WORLDS UNITE! Featuring new cover art from Edwin Huang (Uncanny Skullkickers) and a crazy-new Metal Sonic game art variant provided by Sega!
On Sale Date: 5/13 | 32-page, full color comic | $3.99 U.S.
Sonic #272 is scheduled for release this Wednesday. Enjoy the calm calamity while you can, because it all kicks off in the next Sonic comic release!
Source: Arcade Sushi
Mystic Melody. Well I’ll be darned.
“I feel some strange energy”
Why’s Amy getting all the mystic powers? Shouldn’t it be Knuckles since it’s his ancestry and he already has the Master emerald detection ability?
Because everyone can learn the “Mystic Melody” ability and in the comics she is the only one that has learned it, she is probably going to teach it to Knuckles eventually.
Well, yeah, I know that but I was asking why only she learned it since she’s not a mystic (as far as I know) in this universe.
Because, again, anyone can learn it, Amy learned it from a priest, Knuckles wasn’t there when that happened that’s why he doesn’t know it. Personally I love that each character’s traits and abilities are more varied.
POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD
I’m just gonna come out and say it. I didn’t mind the reboot at first, in fact, I was enjoying it. But now, I’m slowly but surely going off it… Nothing really happens anymore. The character interactions are almost as lackluster as in the games now, aside from the occasional moments, there’s barely any plot, barely anything really happens in each comic now, again, like the games (where the majority of the progression occurs in the levels themselves so it’s not needed as much in cutscenes, the comics, however, have no excuse), most of the characters are now just as devoid of character and samey personality-wise as they are in the games and a lot of the game and old show references are nice and all but rendered mostly invalid as references because they’re changed to suit the world of the comics, they also make no sense in this continuity (when did the original Breezy scenario happen? Did Sonic meet Tails before he joined the Freedom Fighters then?). Honestly, I’m finding it boring now, all I’m really enjoying now is the new character designs since even the much better werehog idea’s now been thrown out the window in favour of the game version which I never liked aside from the design (even then, how do his shoes change? o_o).
I can’t speak for the rest of your concerns (since they’re ties with how the character is presented and the policies of his parent company and that is a fucking page by itself). But about your troubles with the plot progression, you can blame that on two issues: trade collection and cross over fatigue.
Ever since former editor Paul Kaminski first introduced this, all story arcs now has to be either 4-6 issues in order to be neatly collected in trade paperback books. That means that there are stories so short it feels like filler material, or stories that feel like they should go on longer and wind up getting compressed and rushed.
That problem gets compounded when you introduce crossovers into the mix. Every writer in a comic book company does this: 3 months for the big event, writers have to wrap up all of their storylines or figure out a way to incorporate them into the big hull-baloo, and hope that crossover doesn’t mess up their long term plans. This tends to be something that ruins an otherwise good run by a creative team or alienates some writers from taking on a project from a big publisher. This also creates fatigue in readers who just wishes to go through a story without pause.
Unfortunately, This will be the THIRD time Sonic is halted because of an event: the first being Sonic Genesis, which paused The Death Egg arc for a while before the entire Metal Sally saga was aborted after World’s Collide. So if you’re fan looking for a good comic adaptation of Sonic Unleashed, you’re out of luck. Not only do you have to put up with the fact that Ian Flynn is using the game as an overarching plot to create an excuse for world building and character debuts (which is not exactly a bad thing), but you now have to wait for the crossover to see how those developments affect the story and/or the comic itself. This probably will irk a lot completionists collecting the trades or issues and force readers to follow along with the crossover to see how the developments of the main story interact with the ones of the crossover. Both are a huge pain in the ass.
I wasn’t blaming the crossover at all, I never even mentioned it. The comics didn’t have any of the issues I mentioned pre-reboot, even when the big crossover was looming large and other, smaller, crossovers happened.
Then your concerns must be at the characterization level, and that is mainly because of the various SEGA mandates has placed because of the Pendering. After all, the whole point of the reboot was to make it closer to the games and eliminate any anomalies that doesn’t clash with said aesthetic, like the various characters created by writers and artists other than Flynn and co.
That is the price you pay when you are a comic based on an existing property. You get some leeway, but ultimately, at the end of the day you’re being paid to advertise a product in a comic book format. Archie is on thin ice with SEGA because of the lawsuit so SEGA has a tighter leash on how Sonic is portrayed.
The reason I didn’t want to get into this is, if you have problems with the characterization that SEGA is imposing on Archie, then you may have problem that SEGA has throughout ALL Sonic media and that’s a whole nother can of worms
Firstly, that last part is an unfair assumption, I love SEGAs own work, yes, all of it (save a couple games but I won’t get into that).
Secondly, it’s not the fact it’s tying into the games so much per se, I love me some game tie-ins, it’s the fact a lot of it is so badly done. Like, the tie-ins are just kinda… there. They exist for the purpose of going “Hey, look, there’s games too, guys!” and don’t really affect the plot in any way other than handing the team another chaos emerald. Again, the comics pre-reboot had plenty game tie-ins, especially in the early days (not to mention that Adventure saga, that was REALLY well-done) and they all tied into the overall lore, world and plot really nicely.