Should Archie Comics Do a Pokémon Comic Book Series?

If they do, what should it be based on? The games? The anime? Or what?

Frankly, if I'd trust any company to do a new Pokemon comic book series right now, I'd give it to IDW, not Archie. Archie may currently have Mega Man and Sonic, but Mega Man is ending soon and Archie, if I've heard correctly, is having major problems of its own that would make giving them rights to do a Pokemon comic an iffy proposition.

IDW, on the other hand, is currently making good money off licensed series that are being well-received by the license fan bases.

Putting aside the fact that Pokemon has a long-running manga series based on the video games - which would give Nintendo little reason to give anyone else a license to print Pokemon comics, I think the best option would be to go with a Pragmatic adaptation that covers the entirety of the franchise. Not just the anime, not just the video games, but the best of all the elements put together.

Archie approached Nintendo a few years ago, but Nintendo said no.

Just this month, Nintendo let IDW use Bowser and Donkey Kong for a Skylanders one-shot.

Which seems like half-way decent evidence that IDW would probably have the best bet of getting a license to a Pokemon ongoing if Nintendo felt up to having both a Manga and a Comic Book series running at the same time.

And they even did concept art for Kirby, Metroid, and Super Mario Bros. Which is a shame, since my love of the source material and the ◊ untapped potential◊ of the latter◊ honestly brings me close to tears.◊

Weird in a Can (updated M-F)

It would be especially funny because if Archie had published a Mario comic, Worlds Collide could have theoretically been a crossover between Sonic, Mega Man, and Mario instead of just the first two.

Nintendo has famously been iffy about farming out their properties for American adaptations after a few ventures that shall remain nameless. I'm kinda surprised they let them appear in Skylanders at all.

And they even did concept art for Kirby, Metroid, and Super Mario Bros. Which is a shame, since my love of the source material and the ◊ untapped potential◊ of the latter◊ honestly brings me close to tears.◊

Holy crap, that looks friggin' lovely. I mean, I get that Nintendo would be iffy about letting American companies play with their toys after the You-Know-What, but doesn't anyone think it's been long enough? It's been like, what, 20+ years since the You-Know-What?

Maybe if Nintendo got a guy to overlook what Archie is doing with Nintendo stuff and making sure they don't go too far off to the deep end?

EDIT: All of those links were of Mario characters. Weren't there other concept arts of the other Nintendo characters?

edited 26th Oct '15 4:36:55 PM by TargetmasterJoe

Sure was! Here's◊ Kirby,◊ and◊ some◊ Metroid.◊

edited 27th Oct '15 10:39:03 AM by DrFurball

Weird in a Can (updated M-F)

The obvious answer is clearly Valiant Comics.

In hindsight, it's probably a good thing that Nintendo said no, since I think the pitch occurred around the time the Penders lawsuit and other shit (Archie is a mess) went down, which definitely would have poisoned Nintendo against ever licensing out again.

Hey, if I could ask an Archie question, is anyone reading the new Archie series? The new one by Mark Waid?

I've been reading some really good stuff about it.

edited 2nd Nov '15 1:33:03 PM by TargetmasterJoe

No. Pokemon already has a successful comic series in the form of Pokmon Adventures.

Well Pokemon adventures is a manga. But if Archie should do a Pokemon comic, it should be with original characters. No Ash, or Red, or Gold, or Ruby, or Aquamarine, or whatever. You can keep the premise of beating 8 gym leaders, and trying to be the champion of the region, but maybe put in a new setting, so we'd have a variety of Pokemon from different generations. Or you could have an entirely new story, like what Pokemon Colosseum did.