Tbh, Team Dark, Knuckles and similar characters (Blaze, Silver etc) who have their own lore and duties should be getting a spin-off series of their own where the story is about them and their circle. This whole Sonic centered approach is hurting these characters because everything they do has to either revolve around Sonic or they are just removed from the plot because Sonic can do the fight alone or worse they are just fodder in there and contribute next to nothing.

I'm starting to really think Whisper is becoming a Mary Sue. Everyone idolizes her even though she's such a fragile broken wallflower and she's turning into the one character who is right about everything. Also when she fought Surge of course they had to make the fight as unfair as possible so she could believably lose.

I just wish the book would stop trying to justify itself. As a reader, I understand that Eggman is going to be there for as long as the book runs. I don't need Sonic to explain himself, I know this is a cartoon. Just let the characters be themselves.

I have had a tough time explaining to myself what I didn't exactly like about the IDW comics. On the surface, its a fun read to kill time and I strongly believe the reason why I follow this comic series to begin with was because of the lask luster stories from the 2010 games (Colors - Forces) and I was fooled to think these were far more better written than what it is. The ending of the metal virus was what made me realize nothing in the comic actually mattered. I had a huge problem with how the cast decided to handle Sonic's disappearance and just threw a fucking party while their friend could've been gone forever. I watch this video now and you guys made me realize why I found this comic not as likeable as the game stories and y'all brought up really good points like character arcs never going anywhere, the IDW OCs get far more time time on the spotlight than the rest of Sonic's friends, etc. Absolutely no disrespect to Flynn and the rest of the IDW staff, I just want them to improve and write better stories and focus on more concentrated arcs.

I think the reasons Scrapnik Island works so well and why the rest of the comic doesn’t is that: 1. It doesn’t feel like an apology for Forces and the characterizations in that game. 2. Sonic isn’t quick to just trust Mecha Sonic right off the bat, he’s given time to trust Mecha. 3. It isn’t trying to be a meta commentary on anything involving the state of the franchise. It’s tries to be an actual story. 4. Mecha’s entire story and motive is developed upon. It’s shown, not told, and he gets a satisfying ending to his arc. I’m going to die on this hill, Scrapnik Mecha Sonic is the best character to come from IDW.

I love Flynn's Sonic in Archie, but his IDW Sonic is awful. It seems he took Sonic's quick to forgive nature and developed a philosophy. When he already had one established. Sonic was all about living a life with no regrets and always thriving in the present. Making peace was a byproduct of that. It's what other characters learned from him. Sonic was also receptive to his rivals, once aware: - Securing Knuckles' island for him. - Easing Chaos' rage. - Showing heavy respect to Shadow when he sacrifices himself. - Helping Blaze open herself up. - Silver could handle himself more or less, but they had a mutual partnership. In IDW, he has Surge laying out her victimhood and he is unresponsive and oddly dense. It's like he's reading another script. Until it's too little too late. The "lesson he learned" made him set himself up for failure, expecting people to roll with him. TL;DR - Sonic already had an outlook that was straight forward. The new one is out of character and has none of that "Sonic charm" imo.

I feel that this whole thing with challenging Sonic’s philosophy and nothing changing has tainted IDW Sonic for me. Whenever I think about this Sonic, the first thing that pops up is him In issue 50 dumping his philosophy in a “I’m better than you” type pose to someone who’s had their life ruined do to said mindset and him not learning from his mistakes is infuriating to me. And it doesn’t help that having to be stuck in the status quo is why writers can’t do anything with this kind of story. I hope some time soon that this won’t be the case and I can see this version of Sonic in a more positive way, but so far that has yet to change.

You did a great job in explaining the core problem of IDW. As much as I like them, there is always something that hinders me to enjoy them. The characters' lack of any memorable trait plays a big part in it. However, the Imposters' saga managed to hook me, because I felt bad for Kit and wanted him to develop a bond with Tails. And I hope that they will do give a proper conclusion to the dilemma of Sonic.

The movies aren't really a good example of Sega being lenient with its mandates considering there is a significant difference between the influence a movie studio would have over a comic company( something Flynn brings up when talking about the second movie). The TV series is a bit more debatable.

I agree and yet our voices will always be overshadowed. IDW Sonic is now game Sonic.

Honestly, they should've had Belle go back to the village of Mr. Tinker with the badniks, helping the village by carrying on Mr. Tinker's legacy and keeping it safe with the badniks.

The problem with IDW isn’t so much as the idea of redeeming villains in of itself, personally I feel like it was decently well done the first time, but the problem like you guys said is that Sonic never learns from this and they keep using this formula and every single time it’s been him in the ass and causes a bigger crisis, but then they try to make Sonic act like he’s morally superior when in reality he’s just kind of an idiot for not seeing this shit coming

Ian is frankly just a bad writer, but he's manipulated a good chunk of this fanbase into thinking he's the best writer for Sonic. He just got lucky. Nothing more. His writing is also cynical, in a way. Like he's trying to deconstruct the very franchise itself. But he hides it with his surface-level fanservice. But the ultimate truth is that Ian Flynn is nobody without Sonic. He has nothing else to fall back on.

So basically Archie and fleetway where the better comics for these characters 🤔

Ian and others claim this is a kids comic. . .Even though there are many things that don't really count as KID friendly. Now i'm not saying kids can't handle dark themes, just it's that stupid excuse. Also it gives fans who came up with their own stories, that actually can work, or have made work.

They're trying to turn the Sonic Characters into generic western superheroes.

Good ideas, Bad execution

I enjoy these comics and the characters introduced (most notably Tangle and Whisper), especially since the Freedom Fighters will never appear as they aren't game canon and that they'll just turn IDW Sonic into the Archie Sonic reboot if they ever appeared.

They should've had karl bollers right the idw comics

Idw cares more about the OCs no one cares about then the actual main characters we are here for

Is it true that Ian has stated he doesn't believe in themes or any kind of thematic throughline in writing his stories now?

Hello friend, I know that you are not going to answer my question. Make a video talking about the arc of the zetis because there are people who always say that zavok is the best character of all the sonic villains because I just read the comics I don't see how interesting that guy is that is why sega overestimates this red thing because it is intimidating or what and sonic fanboys say that zavok is thanos or sentinel prime and it was written by flyn his writing has holes and his personality is not to mention he is only the typical villain who appeared in the metal virus arc in the end he was defeated in a regrettable way the bad guys arc only appears says phrases that a fanboy says A scene they only see the arc is together with mimic another character from lost along with the skunk brothers and I repeat again if you want to build an antagonistic character do well that it is not a generic character that only says great and evil things that a person without reading the idw comics says the best villain of the year if you did not understand my comment I fix it

Isnt the reason why this is done is because of the Mandates and keep consistent with what the 2010s games has brought? Because he pretty much has to work around this even though all that is messy and character developments clash, trying to strike a balance between things before and after 2010s is not easy and rough.

I hear the criticisms , some of which i agree with. Like the focus on the original characters instead of the game characters, as well as the characterisation of the game characters. For me? THE IDW comics does its own thing with Sonic and friends, much like Sonic Prime, and the movies do their own thing. The Sonic brand has expanded well past the videos games, so naturally, there will be deviations in how the characters are portrayed in other works, i mean, look at Spider-man or the Tmnt. That said, i enjoyed the Metal virus arc. It felt similar in tone and scale to the Adventure games + Unleashed and Frontiers. And while sonic dumping his philosophy on people is a bit out of character for him, i do perfer he stays a character that will do what he feels is right, even if he gets criticized for it. I dont see Sonic as a morally complex character, and i personally like him that way. I do like the idea of his beliefs being challenged and having him try to maintain it during dire circumstances. I would love to see more stories focusing on Sonic's friends and rivals , Shadow and Knuckles are characters i think would greatly benefit with stories solely focused on them. In closing, the idw Sonic series is hit or miss with me, i kind of fell off in the stories immediately following the Metal virus arc, but ill probably return to it at some point. As i mentioned earlier, id like to see the focus return to the game characters a bit more, with sonic being a character that inspires change in others through his actions, not words

I haven’t watched the video because I am not about to watch a one hour video but to the Title I say… Yeah Absolutely not The characters was something I thought they got the most right in the IDW comics and should be the characterizations going forward(except Shadow)

55:29

Amazing how they misconcept the IDW series

I don't think Lav understands comicsgate

Amazing how there still shitty opinion video's like this and it shows

Nah