YMMV / Ghosts of the Future

Please note links to lore (aka Word of God) may have spoilers. You Have Been Warned!

• Awesome Art:
  • The attractive lineart, such as the quasi-pencil lineart is issue 15 and later, rich colors (helped by the dynamic lighting and shading and unique "spotty" aesthetic), accurate proportions of the characters, props, and backgrounds, neatly drawn action scenes, intricate detail in the machinery and backgrounds, and overall quality which surpasses the official Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) comics make Ghosts of the Future one of the best Sonic the Hedgehog fancomics on the web. No wonder Evan Stanley got to work for the official comics.
  • The painted covers since issue 11, such as this, this, this, and this, are beautiful, especially the realistic-looking issue 14 cover.

• Complete Monster: The Sorceress of the Black Isle is the Arc Villain of the Arabian Nights arc. A character from the Arabian Nights who was thought dead, the Sorceress uses the Chaos Emerald sent to the Arabian Nights to amplify her powers, commanding malevolent djinn to terrorize the land. When confronted by two djinn, Uhu and Fouh, the Sorceress imprisons Fouh, and tells Uhu that if he brings the Seven World Rings to her, she'll release Fouh. When the heroes arrive in her palace, the Sorceress congratulates Uhu for bringing Sonic, who has the Seven World Rings inside his body, to her before she reveals that she's brainwashed Fouh into being her slave, ordering her to kill Uhu. To get the Seven World Rings out of Sonic's body, the Sorceress uses her magic to hasten the Flames of Judgment on Sonic's chest, gleefully burning Sonic's body into nothing but bones. She then attempts to use the combined power of the Chaos Emerald and the Seven World Rings to destroy the Arabian Nights.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Who was the original Big Bad? It was Nicolai the Lynx, and this was before Stanley learned of Nicole's holo-lynx form.
  • The unused concept of the Ghosts of the Future counterpart of Marine has her being an obsessive Conspiracy Theorist who believes in aliens and that the New Chaotix is a secret government agency. This was made years before Sticks the Badger, who resembles Marine and also is an obsessive conspiracy theorist, was introduced, as Lampshaded in this Tumblr post.
  • This gag edit lampshades the Ho Yay of an issue 5 panel featuring Uhu (Shadow's Arabian Nights doppelganger) and Sonic. Sonic and Shadow would later be confirmed by Word of Gay to be attracted to males also and have attempted a romantic relationship outside the comic.
  • As Evan Stanley said, "Everybody's comparing Will Smith Genie to Sonic and I've been drawing Sonic with fog feet and heavy gold jewelry for like 12 years and I feel extremely called out".
    Sonisis (@sonisis_): So that's why you called it ghosts of the future
• Ho Yay: Stanley Lampshades this reaction in a gag edit, which makes issue 5's panel of Uhu (Shadow's Arabian Nights doppelganger) talking to Sonic—which is Ho Yay itself—gayer.
• Jerkass Woobie: Scourge is still a total Jerkass, but given that he was manipulated into a Deal with the Devil that destroyed Moebius and killed everyone he cared about through petrification, including Fiona and then bound in eternal service to the same being responsible for it, it's hard to not pity him.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • The story pretty much starts with Eggman gleefully leaping across the Horizon by mind-controlling Shadow into killing Sonic and his best friends.
  • Nicole crosses the Moral Event Horizon by commanding Metal Sonic to attack and maul Vennie, which eventually results in her being permanently disabled.
• No Yay: Evan Stanley was not pleased to find people shipping Vennie and Scourge together.
  I see a lot of people shipping vennie and scourge, c'mon guys I know ages don't matter much in Sonic but... it REALLY feels like shipping a grown man with a little girl and that's just eugh, They're goofy mismatched friends, Also Scourge's whole arc is about how much he still loves his girlfriend.
• Shocking Moments:
  • In issue 6, the Sorceress of the Dark Isle transforms into Darkwing and becomes naked. While her other parts are covered up with a Censor Shadow, her breasts are aren't, yet they lack so much detail the nipples barely count as nipples. Many readers were shocked by this bit of partial nudity showing up in a Sonic fancomic, and Evan Stanley now sees it as Old Shame.
  • In issue 17, readers were shocked by the incident in which Mettalix impales Silver's hands and an abundant amount of red blood draws out.
• Signature Scene: In issue 17, Metallix impales Silver's hands with his sharp thumbs, which is infamous for how bloody and shocking it is.
• Squick: The lore reveals the fact that the modern Hyrbids came to be through the impregnation of human women with artificially-created sperm. It doesn't help they only gave consent so that they could have free healthcare and pensions for them and their families.
• Unexpected Character: GIANT ZOMBIE SCOURGE!
• Wangst: Shadow's realization that he killed Sonic and his best friends under mind control is supposed to be angsty, but comes off as shallow due to the overuse of ellipses and how weak Shadow's crying is. Lampshaded in this Tumblr post:
  Also WOW LOOK AT THAT ANGST
  
  WE NEED MORE ELLIPSES… PEOPLE… BRING ME… MORE.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Even though Ghosts of the Future is a fan comic of Sonic the Hedgehog, a kid-friendly video game series, and created by Evan Stanley, who is now an official Sonic comic artist and writer, it is not for children. The comic starts off with Sonic and his best friends being bloodily massacred by a mind-controlled Shadow, which results in Sonic and Shadow enduring trauma and guilt. There's brutal violence and bloodshed, profanity, sexual innuendo^note such as the Visual Innuendo of the Sorceress holding the long neck of a jug between her breasts, and a brief, non-sexual, and partial nudity in the form of a female's exposed breasts. Nevertheless, little kids still read the comic and their parents even read it to littler ones, so Stanley added Content Warnings to the issue 17 incident.
• The Woobie:
  • The main hedgehog trio, Sonic, Silver, and Shadow, are all woobies.
    • Sonic spent his last moments witnessing his closest friends being killed and suffers traumatic memories of their deaths as a ghost, blaming himself for their deaths.
    • Shadow feels absolutely guilty for killing off Sonic and his best friends, even though he was mind-controlled, thus wasn't his fault.
    • Silver blames himself fully when Vennie is mauled by Metal Sonic. In Stanley's words (spoiler in link), "It's a pretty well-established trend in this comic that I show my feelings of admiration through doing horrible, horrible things to the characters I like."
  • Both of Silver's sisters are woobies.
    • Vennie is permanently unable to walk, by a Nicole-controlled Metal Sonic and held hostage by Scourge.
    • Sicily is left guilt-stricken by being indirectly responsible for Vennie's injuries and ostracized when she takes pity on Metal Sonic.
  • Blaze is revealed to have accidentally killed her mother and burned down their house with her pyrokinesis when she was only a small child and couldn't control her power. While her father doesn't blame her, she certainly blames herself.