Sonic and Omega face off against Zombots with shocking results. Even more shocking is Starline finding something from the past that may solve the Zombot control issue. #sonicthehedgehog #idwpublishing #Issue20
It seems that in this case, intelligence is drained for those turned into a zombot. Shadow shows this after transforming into that. I must admit, it was surprising to see Shadow go to town on Omega. But, the virus is clearly taking a toll on everyone. Dark, Grim, and looks very bleak. Sonic is getting exhausted, Starline is seeking out the Zeti to control the outbreak, and everyone is so somber due to this. This issue shows how really dark this arc is getting. I mean just....wow
A couple of things: 1: The source of that little bit of information wasn't an official release, but rather a Reddit post that was quoting hearsay. 2: Lets say, for the sake of argument, that the Reddit post was correct; if so, then Sega not knowing how to use their own characters is totally consistent with how they've handled the sonic series for the past several years. 3: Regardless of weather the Riddit post is true or false, - Ian Flynn talked at length in his podcast (Bumbleking #81) about how Sega has has always played fast and loose with the mandates they impose on the comics, with the only variable being that they started paying more attention to detail after Ken Penders' lawesuit. 3.5: In that same podcast, Ian did say that he would try and bend the rules when he could to tell the story he wanted to tell and Sega (depending on how the stars are aligning with them that week) will ether look the other way or stop Ian dead in his tracks.
Bill Tenth not sure how that invalidates the proof of the mandates. There’s clear evidence of this existing which is definitely SEGA’s fault. Not sure why you think it’s “hearsay” when literally everyone else will tell you that people within SEGA themselves confirmed it. No matter how you slice it, SEGA is at fault here
@@carlbloke8797 Pardon me for asking, but at what point did I say (or otherwise imply) that I was trying to disprove the mandates? All I said was that I'm not going to take that Reddit post as 100% fact, as it was published by an independent party. That and it wasn't even the author of the post that (allegedly) talked with Ian, it was the author's friend (this bit would be the hearsay I was referring to). Would Sega make an asinine, editorial decision that would tank one of their own character's reputation and character development? Of course they would, they've been doing it for years in the games. Should people take an unofficial statement from an unassociated third-party as absolute fact? No, that's how rumors get started. Would I believe the information provided if it came, not from a third-party, but from the mouth of an IDW or Sega staff member? Yes.
I can promise you guys this, if the mandates are removed, there will be enough creative freedom to a point where things won't get out of hand just like with pre-Flynn Archie!
Excellent review as usual, mate. IDW Sonic’s Metal Virus saga is indeed getting more and more dark as each issue continues the darker story. You do make a valid point at the start when it comes to SEGA being more involved with this comic, we don’t want another crazy situation like with Archie when things got out of control for a bit, then a reboot happened and then the comic got cancelled. I’m also surprised the Deadly Six are coming into the fray, I do indeed know where this is going for the most part, we’re about to have a Sonic Lost World sequel where the Zeti return for revenge. Ian did plan on doing a Sonic Lost World adaptation before Archie Sonic got cancelled, so because, this is a new book. he can finally take on Lost World. I also like what you did at the end. “You’re too slow” indeed... -JMM
I honestly don't give a feather about Shadow being overconfident or the fault in it but to add to the defense of teh Zeti being alive, we've seen Zavok again, granted in spinoff games and or as a phantom copy in forces, but still, the spinoff appearances seem to have the implication of survival
This issue was great. The Metal Virus has an interesting effect on the Sega characters, Zombot Shadow being an excellent example: normal Shadow is fast, strong, smart and so stubborn (I felt Rouge here), but the virus cuts all the characteristics of a character, giving one sole purpose, infect more people - just like a zombie. I'm not sure about this idea for the next 3 issues: 3 stories, occurring at the same time, featuring pairs of characters, dividing our attention for the plot point of this arc: the search of a cure, the multiple fights against the infected people, not to mention Eggman, Starline's intention of using the Zeti as a countermeasure for controlling the zombots and Sonic's struggle to control his infection; it's a lot of stuff for us to focus, that can seriously rush the arc to end at the end of the year. But I'll try to keep an open mind about this idea. If IDW can keep the issues simple but with reasonable explanations on the plot, while giving us some good action, I will definitely enjoy the rest of the arc.
Some good comes from those mandates, it makes sure things suddenly don’t get out of control leading to reboots and the prospect of cancellation like with Archie!
To be fair, the end of Archie Sonic was long overdue by the time of the reboot and what not in my opinion. The reasons why the comic got cancelled are due to... 1. The amount of backlash in regards to the reboot. 2. The court cases 3. Worlds Unite 4. Increasing license fees 5. The growing divide between Archie and Sega
I was a bit worried that zombot Shadow wouldn't be that different from the regular zombots but nope wasn't the case, wasn't there an enemy in the Resident evil 1 remake were you left a zombie on the ground it could come back as a red, stronger and faster zombie? kinda remindes me of that.Also don't mention his rocket shoes in case he actually figures it out and then you'll have a real problem.
I hate how Shadow is written now, I miss SA2, 06 and Archie Shadow. I wish Sega would give more freedom on what Yan is writing, he is no Ken Penders, he fixed the archie story pre-genesis wave wen it was kinda of a mess and for the love of god don't bring back the Zeti again! They are such bad and annoying characters!
@@LeRodz Gemerl never appeared in the Archie Comics. From what I know Ian Flynn didn't get permission to use Gemerl so he brought back the first/original Metal/Mecha Sonic and turned him into Shard and gave him Emerl's snarky personality. Then when the reboot/SuperGenesisWave happened it's like Gemerl was a reincarnation of Shard but also like just giving Gemerl back his original personality. But in IDW Gemerl acts more like Metal Sonic or Omega
Right now there part of the problem since starline gave all the chaos emeralds to eggman to power his virus arc though getting super would be nice since we didn't get it in forces
Ok wow, if that reddit post is actually true, everything is forgiven IDW Shadow. It still doesn't fix it, but it kinda makes up for it in my opinion. IDW's Gemerl though...
This is one of those "character induced stupidity" to keep the plot going. I could have seen Shadow go right after Eggman after learning about this... and I can see him winning, especially since all the chaos emeralds are in the Faceship for him to use and possibly cure everyone of the Metal virus. But then we wouldn't have the rest of these really good comics. And I noticed Ian Flynn does not take the easy way out in solving a plot. I barely remember him using chaos emeralds to solve an issue ever since he got on board writing.
You can definitely tell that Sonic wanted to physically reassure Amy as she was freaking out about losing communication. He reaches his hand out to possibly touch her shoulder but stops himself because he's still infected. If he comforted her, she would become a Zombot. Since Amy is the leader of the Restoration, if she fell victim to the virus then all hell would break loose. But it's nice to see that he's genuinely worried about her during this situation.
One thing I asked myself up until a later issue: Why didn't they just evacuate to Angel Island. I mean, they have shuttles, Knuckles certainly won't turn them down and the majority of the Zombots are grounded. All they'd had to do was to keep an eye on the skys for flying Zombots. Of course, in hindsight, I'm glad they didn't think of it, but, obviously, at the time, I did not have that knowledge. So it seemed (and in the current situation seems once more) like the most logical choice for refuge to me.
Because they don't want to do anything with them. Rather than actually using them and furthering their characters, Sega is simply content to sit on their existence and let them stagnate.
@@newdawnhorizon9879 does he have a history of bad writing because from what I've seen he's pretty good at what he does definitely better than whoever writes the story for the video games
@@newdawnhorizon9879 Is there proof he's blaming them for criticism? Considering the fact he wrote him better in the reboot, the evidence is suggesting that he was forced to write Shadow this way.
Did anyone find the zombot shadow creepy? I mean, he seemed to be unique to the other zombots in that he looks menacingly at the heroes while the other zombots lose interest. Not to mention that he seemed to be more feral and deliberate in his fight against sonic and omega. Maybe his alien dna must have caused a glitch in the mutation, thus giving him independent thought?
3:36-3:39 Golly! Well, at least they have its AI. 7:39 I don't know why but see Omega like this makes my laugh 🤣 I hope his new body have wings. Those, would be very useful at this point.
Tensions are high. First, war. Now, Zombots. But, I concord with you, I like to see Shadow more sympathetic and care for his friends. And I love Amy mature in this continuity, remember like the her story in Adventure 1 when her go independent and no thinking about marry Sonic all the time. I hope that what happened with the Zombots in the future be show, the Zeti have more personality and I like to see other humans because the Two Worlds information, make no sense to me in the games and IDW. Only the Sonic X show the Two Worlds.
*Sigh* About the whole Amy wanting to marry Sonic thing, dating comes first and then marriage happens. Amy wants Sonic to like her, ask her out and *THEN* eventually marry her. While the relationship is a bit strange, SonAmy is still an interesting ship.
To anyone who complains about the Zombot arc because it's "Too scarwy for childwen" or whatever, let me ask me this; Would you rather have this, or a tone similar to a certain other blue character? (Take a wild, WILD guess at who I'm referring to)
I know that Gemrel is a bit boring in this comic, but I don't think it's a good idea to make him a clone of Shard, it just feels wrong. Let the first Metal Sonic go.
I mean Shards personalty it self was original intended for Germel until Sega forbid to use him leading to Shard (hence why he had Gemerls color schem). At this personality was intended for Germel because its actually Emerl's end game personality from Sonic Battle. Aka the Robot Germel was build on top of. And even if a new personality was really necessary would I still like to have one at all because so far do more E-100 Series robots including Zero and Beta have more personality than Germel.
If I was Ian, I wouldn't care how SEGA wanted Shadow written. I'd let Shadow remove his inhibitor rings, and not care what SEGA wanted at all. That's what Ian should do: Not care what SEGA wanted the story be witten.
0:43 That kinda' makes Shadow's derp-dope, arrogant-daft fate that much more satisfying in my opinion. Feel free to disagree, but then again, I'm like the joker out of Batman the Dark Night: "I'm an agent of chaos. I'm a dog chasing cars! I wouldn't know what to do if i caught one!" Edit: also, i think Sonic has a free 'Tease-pass' to mess with Shadow for the rest of time from now on in my book. That's if they cure everbody...
Oh no! I don't wanna see Zavok again. He is a very pointless character. He is in every Sonic game at this point. The Olympic games, Sonic Forces and even Sonic Team Racing.
Dude, characters are only as pointless as they are written to be. As such, even though Zavok was written poorly in those games, he might well be written better in the comics. Dare I say, he might well be written better in the comics than he ever was in the games.
You missing Gemerl when talking about the HQ survivors in the discussion section just shows how much of a nothing character he is in the IDW comics. I miss his fun personality from Archie.
@@lightgivemepower6425 Yes But this is suppose to be based on the games and even Advance 3 gave Gemerl far more personality be it through his regular fighting stands being sonic's from Sonic battle or the 10 seconds of animation at the very end in which we see him care for Cream. And even if Ian or Sega or however wants him to be different there kinda missed the important part to give him a Character at all because right now has he as much of a personality as a motorbug. Pretty much every E100 robot would make fun of his lack of personality because even a non-Character like E-100 Alpha/Zero from adventure was given more personality than Germel here.
I wish Sega would just let their characters develop already, or at least let their characters actually be themselves instead of whatever the memetastic caricatures that they parade around as in the recent games.
This was for me yet enough disappointing issue really. AS if its not bad enough that it takes Tails like what 6 issues to realize that Scanning Sonic maybe helps create a cure no Amy actually sends him onto the battle field like seriously Tails is one of like what 4 persons on the entire world that could potentially find a cure and you risk our changes at saving the world and all who have fallen to the virus by sending him onto the battle field and the dialog implies that Sonic is also soon going back onto the battle field does really no one realize that Sonic thanks to his bodies ability to fight the virus off and Tails through his 300IQ are your more valuable resources in saving the world both of them should be keep as far away from the battle field as there can to find a cure and save everyone. If you lose them than are you all lost. Than does Omega not care at all about Shadow's fate despite the fact that 06 clearly showed that he is important to him is also really stupid. Knuckles was still not even mentioned and given that he has a flying island containing the most powerful energy source on the entire world is this insane its as if there ask to lose access to the Master Emerald and knuckles strenge for good. And I know Amy is overworked but seriously does no ones in the entire restoration thing about these things??? As for central City what does this place even do here its the capital of the United Federation as shown in Shadow the hedgehog and Sonic battle (the data base Rouge accesses with her President security code is about Gerald and the Arc so obviously its on Earth with Humans) (and since when does Tails has a lab there her has one in Emerald City and the Mystic ruins but we never heard about one in Central City does Ian here miss-remember the plot of Sonic Battle given that Tails in that game did go to central city to find a computer strong enough to deal with Emerl's massiv amount of Data after his own computer setup at this lab crashed?) And why does a computer used for a war against Eggman have less power than Tails personal setup when he was working together with the Resistance (and yes he was the Japanese script says that last Contact with him with means before that were to working together) Silver can suddenly carry dozens of Zombot's after he struggled with just a few people during the fight against Master Overlord. Shadow for no reason what so ever gets extra Zombot power for no reason (and it you say its because he is an alien than do I expect that now all things shadow infect get super powers because the natites he now made out of should have the data to create Super Zombots thanks to Shadow now) Gemerl still has less Character than E102 Chaos Gamma, E-101 Beta or E- 100 Zero. And since when does Cream refer to Amy as Miss Rose? She is suppose to be like a big sister to her and Cream generally always named her Misses Amy so this seams strange. Also how convenient that she deal better with the lost of 2 of her best friends than Rouge does over Shadow despite being 6 to Rouges 18.(now this is not to say that I want to see Cream cry in the corner or that I thing its out of Character for her to force her self to appear happy for others but given her reaction to Emerls death in Battle, the re-kidnapping of her mother in advance 2 and her general determination to help her family in Advance 2 and Heroes regardless of what other tell her to (mostly her ignoring Sonic's want for her to stay out of the fight in advance 2) does this seam a bit odd(...really Amy should have send Cream to rescue Sonic given that she has mostly the same skills tails has without risking losing her best change to save the world))
Some people complained and wished for Sally Acorn and a few others from Archie Comics' Sonic to be shown in this rebooted storyline. Sadly for them, that won't happen since technically Sally, Rotor, Antoine, Bunny, Nicole, Uncle Chuck, Snively and the rest are are not canon to the Sonic video game timelines or story-lines. They wouldn't fit anywhere in any of the video game story-lines. Plus, there were mandates and licensing issues between SEGA of America and Archie Comics that lead to SEGA of America officially ending ties with Archie Comics. Not to mention that Archie Sonic comics contradicted ALL of the SEGA Sonic game story-lines. I heard how some fans tried to match the stories from Archie Comics with the Sonic games and in the end, nothing made sense. In Archie Comics and Sonic SAT AM, Sally Acorn has always been depicted as the strong and competent female heroine and intelligent leader of the resistance and Sonic's love interest. I'm very happy that IDW changed all that and rightfully gave that role to Amy Rose as it gave her the needed and deserved character growth and developments that are years overdue. I love that far better than her always being depicted as the tsundere Sonic fangirl I've grown very tired of seeing Amy depicted as in Artchie Sonic.
Know worry way shadow is idiot in this issue 19 idw. Really! sega, It like they make character look bad on purpose, same problem how did tails in sonic forces in gsme without zombot. 😠👎
Man..... why sega. They are like opposite Nintendo. They are chill with fan games but shit at making things themselves or continues to make bad decisions like making shadow an idiot.
It's worth noting that after Sonic met up with Amy back at Restoration HQ with her coordinating all of the activities with her squadron, at point 4:38 in the bottom left panel, Sonic literally tried to reach out to Amy wanting to comfort her when she realized that Echo Three went missing. But Sonic pulled back after he remembered his viral infected state and he left the chamber dejected that he couldn't help comfort Amy like how he did in chapter 15. Throughout this series, Ian Flynn has been giving us clear signs of Sonic's affections for the now mature pink hedgehog, especially since Amy isn't chasing after him as she used to anymore. While he may not say it verbally, but by his actions, in both the canon games and this comic series, Sonic has shown time and again that he wants to be there for Amy when she truly needs him and protect her. On a side note, had SEGA accepted Ian Flynn's original idea for Shadow becoming a Zombot, it would have given homage to Sonic’06 as if that game happened in the IDW Sonic continuity, which SEGA did NOT want no doubt. That game was a total disaster and disgrace that SEGA and Sonic Team want to forget about as it was removed from the canon SEGA Sonic mainstream as a story that never happened.
@@59rlmccormack Sonic’06’s failure and Archie Comics’ mismanagement with their game characters. It should also be noted that when SEGA of America had partnered with Archie Comics to start producing Archie Sonic, it was done without SEGA of Japan’s or Sonic Team’s involvement. And that later became a source of pain and frustration for both SEGA of Japan and Sonic Team.
@@59rlmccormack It was mismanagement in that Archie Sonic didn’t reflect what canon Sonic is about and Archie’s poor handling of SEGA’s game characters by pushing them into the background in favor of SatAM and the Freedom Fighters. Like I said, their work became a source of pain to SEGA of Japan and Sonic Team over the years. Even Sonic’s and Amy’s co-creator Naoto Ohshima never read Archie Sonic. In Sonic Overdrive, classic Sonic at times acted like jerk to classic Amy and his friends, something that’s not canon about classic Sonic.
@@59rlmccormack I love and enjoy Sonamy, but Archie Comics had shown heavy favoritism towards Sonic SatAM. When classic Amy Rose, a.k.a. Rosy the Rascal was introduced into Archie Sonic, she was turned into Archie Sonic's punching bag for a lot of misrepresentations and hate from die-hard SatAM fans, especially Sonally fans who saw Amy as a threat to their favorite SatAM princess and to the non-canon Sonally shipping that Archie Sonic was pushing out. They stripped Amy of her canon roles and gave them to Sally Acorn and demonized Amy as a bratty Sonic fangirl. After Sonic Adventure debuted with the modern Sonic characters on the SEGA Dreamcast, in Archie Sonic, Karl Bollers wrote that classic Amy physically turned into modern Amy by using and exhausting the powers of the Ring of Acorns, but still had her old personality, meaning that modern 12-year-old Amy Rose was retarded with a mind of an 8-year-old. And they painted Amy as selfish since Sally Acorn was originally going to use the Ring of Acorns to help heal her mother. Western pop culture and Archie Sonic writers before Ian Flynn did no justice to Amy's characters, portrayed her as a violent obsessed fangirl and stalker, and pushed her into background in favor of their favorite SatAM princess. Added to this was that Archie Comics kept putting Sonic in all of those ridiculous soap opera romances with multiple females, primarily with Sally Acorn, and never once placed him with Amy Rose, the canon lead female protagonist who's the same species as Sonic and Sonic's canon love interest as stated by Sonic Team. Naoto Oshshima and Kazuyku Hoshino had created Amy Rose as the Minnie Mouse to Sonic's Mickey Mouse, but Archie Comics disregarded that in favor of SatAM fans who wanted to see Sonally. Archie Comics' works contradicted every Sonic Team developed about Sonic, Amy and all of their official game characters. Takashi Iizuka the head of Sonic Team had expressed absolute frustrations with Archie Sonic.
