IDW Sonic the Hedgehog Comics General Discussion

Oh god, that was yesterday. Shit. Guess I gotta go pick that up then.

When does the Fang series come out?

It's scheduled for the 17th.

Cool!

According to an episode of le BumbleKast, Ian Flynn pitched a Metarex Saga adaptation for the IDW comics. However, it seems some real high level management said that Sonic X characters in general are just off the table.

It led to tbe typical morons to make a conspiracy of how Flynn is lying because Cream's Barney show, Cosmo's plant and insert another cameo here have appeared in the comics.

Because easter eggs are the same as using those characters for something.

So it isn't just the dic shows.

I mean that's obvious, but the confirmation is nice.

This also means Prime's chances of being referenced is zilch.

I guess if said source, like the Metarex Saga in Sonic X wasn't featured in the games at any point, then SEGA doesn't want anything to do with it.

I mean, even when Archie was pulling from Adventures and Sat AM content, they've never touched X.

Outside of that one issue where Shadow teleports into the X universe, it's always been separate from everything else going on.

Geez, did Penders' shenanigans rattle them up so much, they're not willing to incorporate even Japan-original stuff?

JFC...

(But I guess guys like Tangle and Sticks are in the clear since they were mentioned by name in Frontiers? Speaking of, I wonder if there will be a point where Ian will get to do an arc that covers Frontiers or do a time-skip in the comics taking place after it.)

It is surprising that SEGA doesn't want Sonic X incorporated into the comics, despite the fact that Sonic X was created by SEGA in a sense and was probably the most faithful adaptation of the games at the time. To be fair, SEGA does seem to have problems with allowing older materials of the franchise to be in the newer materials and I honestly don't understand why SEGA refuses to take in some of the older materials and just modernize them.

I'm sorry, but can we not ascribe every little "restriction" of this nature to Penders? This kind of thing has been going on long before he started that lawsuit business, and I doubt SEGA cares about him at all beyond being the reason Archie Comics had to reboot their adaptation of Sonic. It's implying Penders has more power and influence over SEGA than he actually has (which is completely nothing).

To throw in my two cents on this news, I'm not really surprised that most of Sonic X's concepts are off the table. IIRC a lot of the characters from Sonic X are "owned" by the studio that worked on the show, so SEGA would have to at least pay money to have those characters featured in the games and other material. And I imagine it's a similar deal with all other adaptations; the Sonic OVA exclusive characters? "Owned" by the studio that made the thing, so SEGA would have to deal with legal mumbo-jumbo to use them. And sadly or otherwise, they don't find those characters worth such effort lol

And honestly, this kind of thing is not unusual. Most adaptations of major franchises like Sonic have little to no effect on the source material, and indeed the chances of characters and other major concepts originating from those adaptations are unlikely to be utilized or referenced in said source material. Especially with any "legal shenanigans" like above. Like, Donkey Kong's own cartoon had no shortage of original characters, some of them being fan favorites. But do you think those characters would ever get acknowledged in any Donkey Kong game? Hell, Silco from Arcane is such a popular and beloved character from that show, yet League of Legends saw fit to create their own character to fit Silco's role instead of, say, immigrating Silco into the game.^note Yes, Silco died in the Season 1 finale, but any kind of excuse could've been conjured to bring him back to life for the game Cases of Harley Quinn are relatively rare, and cases like the "Super Mario Bros. Rap" from the Mario cartoons being used in the Illumination Mario movie was completely unexpected for a reason. So... It sucks that we're not going to get Cosmo, the Metarex, or any other worthwhile Sonic X character in IDW, but that's the way things are right now.

And as I said to this random loser who thought easter eggs or ideas from Sonic X mean Flynn is lying: most of Sonic X influences on IDW and modern Sonic tend to be with the already established characters.

Cream likes a Barney the Dinosaur show, and IDW allows the character to be seen. Fine. Tails has a plant on his home, but it doesn't mean its Cosmo, it's just a nod to Cosmo; Vector and Vanilla having Ship Teasing it's fine because it doesn't break anything.

It's like Kaotic said, Canon Foreigners tend to stay in their lane and be forgotten in the main continuities, mostly out of copyright. It doesn't matter if Sega owns the studio who made Sonic X, they would still need to pay royalties to the staff who created the Metarex and Cosmo. Same thing with the Western cartoons, as the only thing we ever got from there in the main games is Sonic's love of Chili dogs, but Sally, Manic and Sonia, or Snively will remain in their cartoons.

Archie was weird because it was allowed to use certain characters from the cartoons, but they weren't allowed to use anything from X. Hell, Madonna was an expy of Topaz but she was still an original character based on two unrelated characters, so they were in the clear. If I had to guess it's because Archie Sonic is an adaptation of Sat AM, so it had some freedom with DIC characters and concepts.

I figured as much, though hopefully I didn't end up restirring too many pots since I think I recall a pretty similar discussion here not that long ago.

Edited by taotruths on Jan 16th 2024 at 1:25:13 AM

Don’t you mean Topaz is an Expy of Madonna?

Topaz came first. Madonna Garnet wasn't introduced until 2015, and even then she only appeared in a single issue (Super Sonic Digest #12).

I thought she was a concept (Sonia’s human girlfriend) that was dropped.

Go figure.

Oh, that Madonna. The "Sonic's girlfriend" Madonna did predate both Topaz and Agent Madonna Garnet, but I doubt she influenced Topaz. So Topaz may or may not be an Expy of the original Madonna, but Agent Madonna is a Composite Character of both.

Edited by Negacube on Jan 16th 2024 at 8:13:01 AM

I see.

I honestly never heard of Agent Madonna Garnet until now, so I had no idea you weren't talking about Classic (but never used) Madonna.

Alright, very fun start to Fang's miniseries so far. Sad that this is only gonna be three issues long though.

Edited by taotruths on Jan 17th 2024 at 9:18:26 AM

Oh the solicitation for the fourth issue of Fang's mini series also was released.

Covers A◊, B◊, and RI◊ too

Heavy King is gonna be in this one baby

Edited by taotruths on Jan 18th 2024 at 9:17:54 AM

We have a new seasonal comic, Spring Broken, for April 2024.

So, how do you guys feel about these seasonal issues that IDW releases for the Sonic series, like the Winter Jam and the Summer issues? Do you think they are great for taking breaks from the main series?

Both have been fun! I enjouyed them.

Ah, the guys who knew what to do with the Phantom Ruby are back.

The first Fang issue was fun. Real Saturday Morning Cartoon vibes.