Honest thoughts on Sonic IDW and Ian Flynn?

It's neat that he gets to do what he does, but I have no opinion of him as a person.

I don't care much for the lame IDW Sonic story as well as Sonic's frustratingly and annoyingly mellow personality which is only made worse that he can never lose a fight. I just stick around for the Diamond Cutters. I appreciate Ian Flynn minimally, he and his run of Sonic are fine and ok to me

IDW's run is hard-carried by the OCs character designs rather than the writing. That's not exactly a glowing review, in my opinion at least.
The story moves at a sluggish pace, and its somewhat frustrating that nothing really matters due to the status quo never truly being shaken for more than a few issues
Flynn himself falls into the trap of making too many references to previous Sonic media, to the point where it feels almost forced, but overall, he's still far from the worst writer the series has ever had.

>>148961169 (OP)
is there a reason sonic fags hate him so much?

>>148962489
Game purists hate him because he doesn’t like Sonic as the Japanese envisioned the character, he likes the localized American version who acts like Spider-man and has Peter’s troubled love life.

>>148961169 (OP)
He was way fucking better when he wasn't leashed by SEGA.
He's an AU fanfic maestro but he's wasted having to work around brand synergy.
IDW's pacing is glacial because he's stuck working around the games and mandates. Should have just let him have a sandbox to fuck around in instead of trying to keep it all to the same canon.

>>148962943
This is a good view on it. He's not bad when on his own, and has been really great on stuff like Archie.
The problem imo is that he's honestly not the right man for the job anymore, but nobody in charge seems to realize that.

Eggman: "I'm going to win this time, Rodent! Because I am the E.G.G.M.A.N! I always have the master plan."
Robotnik: "Well aren't you a Mean Bean Machine!"

Modern Sonic: "Oh please! There's no way you're ever gonna beat us Mcnosehair, not with Sonic 2sday up in here."

Amy: "I won't mind painting my card deck blue for you Sonic!"
Knuckles: "You're rougher then the rest of them, Sonic!"
Shadow: "Live and Learn, Senic."
[REMOVED TO CONFORM WITH LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL CENSORSHIP LAWS]
Vector: "Don't go there, yet!"
Espio: "Now you see me, Sonic."
Charmy: "Don't Cry! One Two, Buckle Your Shoes!"
Cream: "You Must Advance, Sonic!"
Blaze: "Feel the Rush, Sonic!"
Silver: "Dream of an absolution, Sonic!"

Classic Tails: "Fly high like there's no Sky Patrol to ever stop you, Sonic!"
Modern Tails: "...True Dat."

Modern Sonic: "Ough... The colors... feel so right.... Consider us your Final Frontier! I'm going to unleash my power and show you the real super power of teamwork. SUPER SONIC 2 STYLE!"

>>148961169 (OP)
Lame and awful, in that order.

>>148961169 (OP)
IDW is crazy boring.
>overlong arcs like Zombots (19 issues) or the first Surge & Kit arc (7 issues and a mini)
>lack of menacing villains other than Eggman (Clutch and Mimic are both powerless, Starline's a prancing homo, Surge and Kit are jobbers)
>focusing too much on the OCs like Tangle, Whisper, and Belle, especially since the latter two spend all their time crying about their tragic backstories
>issues about boring shit like camping trips, or Sonic giving Surge a guided tour of the Restoration HQ
>too many callbacks and references to song lyrics

>>148961169 (OP)
He is great

>>148961169 (OP)
He has his fair share of issues like his odd way of writing for Amy, but I'd much rather have someone who's problem is that they likes the series too much rather then someone who doesn't give a shit. His nack for referencing previous events can get annoying when he overdoes it but at least I can rest easy knowing he'll never make Sonic have to face his own version of Paul or whatever

>>148962943
>He was way fucking better when he wasn't leashed by SEGA.
At a point you people need to drop this excuse for every single thing he does.

>>148962877
Funny, I don't like Ian because I think his writing is simplistic and amateurish and his dialogue and characterizations are one-note. But if it were more like the games it would be 10 times worse, where every character is basically a McDonald's mascot.

I think the dude gets weird cult fans and weird cult haters. He's just mid.

>>148962943
I think it's less that he's being choked by corporate oversight and more that when he can't just do whatever off the back of someone else's work he flounders.

>>148965555
Checked.
Yep. It's not really a cult tho. Sonic's fanbase is mostly autistic people obsessed with Sonic. Some are ok with varied visions of the character, and some require a rigid, inflexible definition. Both sperg out about the weirdest shit. No matter who is in charge of Sonic, they will always be doomed to be praised and hated in equal measure for incredibly unpredictable reasons. Unless of course they team up when Sonic gets veneers, and collectively crash the internet with their rage. Being mid somehow allows Ian to stay in this weird space between them, not tipping the scales either way.

>>148965606
I really wouldn't put it that way. A lot of the hate comes from autists who get frustrated that he doesn't address his flaws as a writer more than if they're being pandered to or not, and some people seem to legit think he's extremely good at writing.

>>148961169 (OP)

He’s been phoning it in since IDW started but given everything that happened with Archie, I don’t blame him. It’s funny to watch people act like he has a stranglehold on Sega’s direction with Sonic, at least.

>>148966032
He definitely has shaped the direction Sega takes with the side characters at least. Amy going woke and boring has his fingerprints all over it.

>>148961510
Lanolin in particular is my favorite. I love my bossy sheep girl.

>>148964030
Surely he knows he should reel it back in SOMEWHAT.

>>148966818
Amy’s been a lame Minnie Mouse in the games as far back as Lost World, maybe even further

>>148965567
I agree with this post. I'm at work so I can't go archive diving, but my memory recalls that Flynn's assertion that SEGA is leashing him was proven false. I also know that his IDW stories are retreads of Archie stories, or holdovers from ideas used for that serialization. Both of these tell me that Flynn can't write without someone else giving him good material. Without that support, he retreats to the familiar, which is why characterization and plots continually stall, reset, and repeat when he's writing.

>>148961169 (OP)
>Sonic IDW
Boring main book, cool side stories. Really enjoyed the classic stuff and Scrapnik Island.

>Ian Flynn
He's ok I guess. Gets a lot of flak these days but at least he somewhat cares about the series he's writing for. I'd still take him over alternatives like Penders, Bollers, or the Happy Tree Friends guys. People have short memories and forget how bad it was.

>>148967008

>>148967008
>>148967255
Benefit of hindsight rewrite:
Lanolin should've been right, she should've still been criticized by the Restoration for being "too extreme" with her actions that inadvertently hurt Whisper and Tangle (who both needed to be rescued by Silver), she should've been angry that she succeeded in the mission but "apparently that's not good enough?!", and then been recruited into GUN where her talents and attitude would've been put to better use. That way, the writers get their new character, but she's also kept in reserves for a future story instead of helping bleed the spotlight from an already enormous cast size.

>>148967320
I think Lanolin being wrong about shit is good. The problem is no conflict comes out of it, and they don't explore the reason she's behaving like she is (Whisper has undercut her trust like three times in a row).

>>148968132
Lanolin being wrong means the main cast is correct. If the main cast is correct, then they have no incentive to change. With no incentive to change, then IDW continues to remain a stagnant nothingburger of a time. This is twice now that IDW Sonic and friends had a chance to actually become their own identity rather than living in the shadows of Archie. The first was Surge calling out Sonic about letting Eggman go, but that story and messaging was irrevocably and horrifically bungled and can never, ever be brought up again. Lanolin being a civilian who wanted to join the cause and fight the good fight, only to be disillusioned when her heroes aren't what she envisioned them to be, was the second chance, and that also has been ruined.

>>148968307
Conflicts aren't binary. Lanolin can be duped by Mimic, make mistakes under his influence, and still be correct in being upset that Whisper has never trusted her as a leader, colleague or friend and has undermined her multiple times. Makes for good drama without stealing a ton of screentime. Feeds into Whisper's character arc. Allows for more spontaneity.

>>148964279
>focusing too much on the OCs
People griped about this in the Archie days but it's a consequence of Sega's strict control over their principal characters while they mostly don't give a shit what writers do with the side characters.

>>148968629
The actual truth behind these gripes is "The OCs are used in boring ways and the game cast isn't being integrated well." Nobody cares if a character is new, they care if they're wasting the reader's time. Nobody cares if Knuckles only showed up once a year; they care that his yearly story SUCKS.

>>148961169 (OP)
You wouldn't wanna hear my Honest thoughts...

>>148961169 (OP)
>Sonic IDW
Boring and bad.
>Ian Flynn
Horrible writer who consistently fails to understand the characters and should have never been hired by Sega outside of his Archie run.

>>148967089
She was still pretty ditsy in Lost World. Boom was the first media where stronk independent womyn Amy first showed up, but even she was still Sonic crazy deep down. Ian just copied the surface level take of Boom Amy and called it a night.

>>148961169 (OP)
>Sonic IDW
Wasted potential to start fresh and make fun Sonic stories that just so happen to be grounded on the games canon.
Weirdly focused on the Sonic Forces mythos and OC donut steels.
Writing is basically Steven Universe-tier trauma dump trite.
Either the "secret SEGA mandates" meme is real, or the creative team is just simply retarded (no proper Sonic solo stories, no chill stories with the main 4 having goofy, fun adventures around the world, no humans).
>Ian Flynn
He was great when he had total freedom to handle the pre-reboot Archie canon. Clearly felt like he was in his zone while playing with those unhinged Archie concept like a fun toybox of sorts. Stuff like the Enerjak saga, Scourge, Iron Dominion, etc, were fun as fuck. Everything after the Pendering felt like an afterthought.

>>148961169 (OP)
He's alright as a write, dude clearly misses the freedom he had with Pre-reboot Archie, was able to work around Post Reboot, but IDW is so dam shackled he can't flex like he did. The Metal Virus should have stayed with Post Reboot like it was originally intended.

>>148961169 (OP)
I barely have any opinion on him or Sonic comics. I guess he currently writes for the games and makes lots of references to all games which throws Sonic fans into a fuckin tizzy for some reason. The writing for the games have always been trash and Ian taking over doesn't change that.

>>148970028
>Weirdly focused on the Sonic Forces
Because Sega outright forbids them from adapting anything post Forces. Frontiers and Dream Team have been out for more a year or two by this point, yet no Ancients, Sage, Reverie or Ariem have been allowed to be mentioned or show up, and I guarantee that the next mainline game with be locked away as well.

>>148961169 (OP)
I think the IDW comics are sterile and poorly written. I find that a lot of the good ideas it sometimes has get wasted.

I don't Flynn is a bad person, but I don't favor his writing; especially his overuse of shoehorned references in the dialogue.

Eh, still better than Evan "Allergic to heterosexuality" Stanley.

>>148970405
>no Ancients, Sage, Reverie or Ariem have been allowed to be mentioned or show up

You say that as if any of that is enough to actually make a story out of, and they really aren't.

>>148970609
If political posturing is the only thing you care about, sure.

>>148970652

Sage would be good if they played her for laughs.

>>148962943
What's your opinion of his non-SEGA works? I'm sure you've read them, right?

>>148970652
The problem is Ian refuses to adapt to a post-Sonic Adventure formula Sonic, he's just that dedicated to Archie Sonic, that's how we ended up with these Freedom Fghter expies and why they've stayed centered around the Restoration as opposed to Sonic travelling around the planet just having random adventures as Sega has him do.

This is an even bigger problem because now he's actually writing the games instead of being confined to his own little corner, and it's just not working, especially seeing his rewrite of the Sonic Generations remaster.

>>148967045
The way Ian works is he's desperate for audience approval. He does something, it gets good reception, he milks it until he finally notices people now hate it, and only then he stops. So no, he doesn't know to reel in the references UNTIL everyone's starting days-long X shitposts for months about how he only does references, THEN he'll go "oh, have I done it too much?"

>>148970693
I'm inclined to disagree. Aside from the fact Sage has the personality of a wet paper plate, her existence is a long term issue for Eggman. Eggman isn't "caring" or "loving", and most of the humor derived from him is how poorly he treats his own creations like Orbot and Cubot. You can't have that same formula with Sage, nor can you make Eggman a loving father to Sage, who at the end of Frontiers has a full alignment shift, and her being okay with him trying to dominate the world, especially considering the fact IDW Eggman unleashed the Metal Virus on the planet and nearly doomed it.

Sage only works as a one off, keeping her around is a bad idea.

>>148970786
In terms of making money it's a good short term strategy. Got him a fan base, too.

Problem is it doesn't get long term growth and opportunities.

>>148970780
Ian just wants to bring everything back to the status-quo of SatAM Sonic, in spirit if nothing else. I mean, he was all set to revive the original SatAM Robotnik during the Anonymous arc but got vetoed, so instead he doubled-down on making Eggman into the same kind of absolute evil that Robotnik was before him and kept that characterization all the way into IDW.

>>148970848
Sage is spin-off filler now, like Rosalina is to Mario.

>>148970945
>Ian just wants to bring everything back to the status-quo of SatAM Sonic

and that's a problem because the Sonic that Sega is pushing now is incredibly different from SatAM Sonic. He doesn't stay in one place to launch repeated attacks against Eggman, he's always travelling to a new place for a new story, and he typically doesn't need an entire team of people to help him save the day, only to go back to the treehouse at the end of the day.

It doesn't matter which version of Sonic you think is better, at the core of things it's ironically causing MORE inconsistency in the name of synergy.

>>148970945

>Ian just wants to bring everything back to the status-quo of SatAM Sonic
Or preboot Archie. Same thing.

He really needs to let it go.

>>148971065
Evan has the same attachment to ArchieSonic, so unfortunately Ian has support in his corner.

>>148971125

Then Sega needs to slap some sense into them.

>>148971125
I don't really get this image beyond "Ian's character voices suck." The characters aren't very similar.

>>148971125
You know I never get why this image includes the top two panels. The whole point is comparing Lanolin with Sally by showing original panels and redrawn ones, so why are the top two which aren't redrawn here?

>>148971153
>The characters aren't very similar.

Their role is. Sally and Lanolin are the "control" to Sonic's "chaos", the voice of reason who wants to do things the "correct" way only for Sonic to rebel and do things HIS way, which ends up working.

This does not work for the video game version of Sonic, Sonic shouldn't be called out for doing what he does. the closest thing there's been to that was Sonic Lost World, and what a shitshow that was.

>>148971197
>Sally and Lanolin are the "control" to Sonic's "chaos"
Lanolin and Sonic barely interact, and Lanolin seems to have a grudge while Sally wanted to fuck him.

>the voice of reason who wants to do things the "correct" way only for Sonic to rebel and do things HIS way, which ends up working.
This only happened once so far, and even then she didn't even realize she was fighting Sonic.

>This does not work for the video game version of Sonic, Sonic shouldn't be called out for doing what he does.
Sonic having people who question him or don't agree with him is fine, even in a game. It's a matter of execution.

>>148971161
That there is kinda the problem. Ian and Evan were using Lanolin like they would Sally, but the difference is Sally was a child soldier who grew up in war and actually had the experience to justify acting the way she did. Lanolin meanwhile was just some civillian who was tired of being a victim and decided if she didn't take charge of things then nothing would ever improve, despite being grossly unqualified to do so.

>>148970900
That's exactly right.
Like yeah, seeing it once or twice would probably make me pog but I've seen him do the same shtick for YEARS now...

>>148971260
>Lanolin and Sonic barely interact, and Lanolin seems to have a grudge while Sally wanted to fuck him.
This of course means the way to fix Lanolin is having her want to fuck Sonic too

>>148971065
I wouldn't say they're the same. SatAM Sonic was outright "Robotnik wins!" for its entirity and nobody ever truly escaped his looming presence even when things were calm. That's more of what Ian wants, to bring the comics back to Eggman/Robotnik having already won and everybody else on the defensive like in the cartoon he no doubt grew up on. Problem is, Sega won't allow that for one reason or another, so he has to compromise.

>>148971273
There's a bunch of people who read books purely for da service/fandom validation, and that's why he does this stuff. It keeps him employed.

Problem is he struggles to move out of his niche.

>>148971260
>Lanolin seems to have a grudge while Sally wanted to fuck him

It's funny because Sally loved Sonic as a hero, but she couldn't stand him as a person.

>>148971318
Backwards. She liked him as a person but hated how he did things professionally.

>>148971307
>Sega won't allow that for one reason or another

I'm glad for that, it'd get old fast, espcially given how badly IDW's pacing is where it seems like things happen way too fast but at the same time nothing really happens at all.

>>148971337
>She liked him as a person

Oh fuck that, she was constantly moaning and groaning about his personality every time he opened his mouth.

>>148971296
Based.

>>148971125
I wish they let her actually be a passive aggressive bitch in the book. She has so much potential to be funny and they blow it every time.

>>148971381
Are we talking TV or comic? Because in the comics, most of the time, she was partial to his bragadocious bullshit and only gave him guff for being irresponsible.

>>148970609
Ian is a woketard too.

>>148971426
Ian cosplays as a liberal, but all his writing skews conservative. Just not racist or nationalist.

>>148971426
Ian's wokeness pales in comparison to Evan, who's actively against heterosexuality.

>>148971465
>actively against heterosexuality
I mean we can all just make shit up if we want to.

>>148971260
>Lanolin seems to have a grudge
Lol no she doesn’t. Like you said they barely interact, she only yelled at him once for endangering the race. Then she got understandably mad at him for working with Eggman Bin Laden and becoming Racer X only to inexplicably drop it because consequence and things happening doesn’t occur in IDW. Everyone must stay happy friends forever.

>>148971487
Go ahead, name a character she made that isn't gay. ("Or bi, I haven't decided")

>>148971631
Clutch isn’t gay.

>>148971721
Give it time.

Also to point out the only named male OCs this comic has introduced who AREN'T evil are the gay birds, while all the the females are heroes (no, Surge doesn't count as a villain anymore.)

>>148971460
I wouldn't be surprised if he's a closeted Boston Tea Party-tier pro-republic guy. Considering how much he antagonized the Acorn royal family and their absolute monarchy in his pre-reboot Archie run.
That whole story where Amadeus Prower (Tails' dad btw) starts a revolution against the crown was kinda crazy.

>>148971747
>moves goalposts
Faggot

>>148971574
Let me rephrase: they tried to subtly imply a grudge and botched it. Adam's conveyed it much better in his own work.
>>148971631
Clutch.
Belle.
I forget if she made the group of fennecs or if that was Cavan Scott.

She's not made many characters desu. Sounds more like you're mad she made fags.

>>148971773
>That whole story where Amadeus Prower (Tails' dad btw) starts a revolution against the crown was kinda crazy.

To be fair, by then it was obvious Max had ruined everything for everybody and Elias didn't have the experience to be King.

More to the point the whole "Kingdom of Acorn" thing had just become so horribly irrelevant to Sonic as a franchise by then.

>>148971773
He feels more like the typical American liberal: wearing the colors of the left but mostly having conservative values. He's all for authoritarianism and the surveillance state if "the good guys" are in charge. He's very sex negative and has reductive views on femininity. He has pretty negative views on democracy. That kind of thing.

>>148971852
>has reductive views on femininity.

That explains a lot.

>>148971773
The council was worse than the monarchy ever was. At least when Max put Robotnik into power he didn’t know he was a bad dude. Tails’s Mom knowingly put an evil wizard who tried to kill her son multiple times on the throne because he destroyed Metal Sonic Kai one time.

>>148971914
I'm still wondering what the point of that was.

In a time where keeping the political bullshit was making more and more people ignore the comic in favor of the games, why introduce MORE political bullshit?

>>148971914
>At least when Max put Robotnik into power he didn’t know he was a bad dude.

Max literally ignored everything his advisor Harvey Who suggested and made every wrong choice possible. He was a bad king.

>>148971905
That doesn't explain anything: I'm extrapolating, same as you would be. My words have no more credence than yours do, don't use them as a guideline.

I'm just saying the guy seems to have hangups on these things. He appears to think femininity and feminism are mutually exclusive. He chafes at the idea that a traditionally effeminate set of traits can be signals of personal agency and self fulfillment. His idea of self actualization seems to rely on a set of mostly traditional masculine values instead of the way in which a person embodies values they care about.

Like, honestly, look at his work. The effeminate is always negative. This isn't specifically about women, either, it shows up in his male characters, too.

>>148969425
share with the class pussy

>>148971356
Not to mention Forces itself is a case study as to why SatAM's status quo doesn't work at all. Eggman being on top creates an artificial tone shift that leaves everything feeling schizophrenic, and leaves a permanent scar that's hard to really ignore. Having Sonic crack jokes with Eggman as if he's an old friend while Eggman has a body count and gets off to suffering makes zero sense.

>>148962466
This. The porn is exquisite but other than that I could care less.

>>148964279
Why is Whisper pregnant?

>>148973316
He only works on one end of the spectrum or the other. Either Sonic and Eggman are equals or Eggman is the absolute authority to defy.

If they're both individuals who do as they please, Eggman gets to be charismatic and has more flexibility. He does bad stuff, but never actually manages to cross absolute moral lines with fuzzy cartoon logic allowing the audience to accept that he just needs a walloping and maybe he'll learn his lesson one day (never). It lets you explore stories with and without him, makes Sonic the focus. If Eggman is the world controller, the centralized authority, he becomes the butt of all jokes and the story revolves around him. The ousting is an endless struggle and Sonic can poke fun because they're the only real wins he'll ever get.

The American comics always tried to get in the middle, and it just doesn't work. If Eggman controls a lot of the world but not the majority, he becomes a major threat that it's irresponsible to not prioritize at all times, but his relative weakness means he's not as interesting and you wonder why he's still around.

>>148971125
I don't even like either character but this is nonsense.

Ian Flynn is currently facing the same problem a lot of once-celebrated artists are.
He's a mellowed out middle aged man.
When he started writing for Archie he was spry and in his 20s and it showed in the amount of ideas he was willing to throw at the wall with total sincerity as well as how willing he was to discard them and move on to the next thing.
For IDW the dude was in his late 30s and now 40s, and you can tell in how slow paced and uneventful the writing has become.
Nothing wrong with getting softer with age, but it's not conducive to good storytelling in an action adventure franchise for kids.

>>148961169 (OP)
>Ian Flynn
I like his Archie work, but he fell off afterwards (aside from the occasional good issue here and there.
>Sonic IDW
It's bland.
I'm already growing tired of the "organized force against Eggman" premise and that's before you consider how IDW just feels like a shell compared to Fleetway and Archie.
As >>148973316 and >>148974654 touch on, Eggman in IDW just isn't the same force that he is in other canons. He doesn't have a capital city, his enforcers are limited (Metal doesn't speak and mostly directly serves him, Cubot and Orbot are Cubot and Orbot) and overall he doesn't have the presence that would justify an organized unit to oppose him. The Restoration should, at best, be a background thing that Sonic or Amy or someone runs into from time to time where they're cleaning up some ruined Eggman tech or trying to fix some environmental nightmare that the doctor was cooking up or whatever drives the plot of that particular arc/issue.

>>148962489
Because he's an incurious hack that prioritizes fanservice over any sort of actual narrative. Even back in his Archie days, you can see this sort of mentality start to fall apart in his Mega Man run. Where Ian would be so lazer focused on trying to please the audience that it ended up undermining crucial character moments he set up. By the time Mega Man ended it was smothered by pointless callbacks, crossovers, and general naval-gazing.

He's basically the Dave Filoni of video games.

>>148976272
>He's basically the Dave Filoni of video games.

He even has the same stupid hat.

>>148961169 (OP)
It annoys me how he's constantly trying to make Eggman seem threatening, but in the most repetitive, trite way possible.
>"I hid Eggman in the shadows where only his silhouette and trademark smile is visible! Isn't it SCARY?"
Like, congrats, you somehow managed to pull the same trick 90s Superman comics used for fucking Toyman. Don't pretend like that's any sort of accomplishment by spamming it every chance you get, it's embarrassing.

>>148961169 (OP)
I think that the stories from Archie were crazier and dumber and therefore more entertaining.
That being said, IDW has better artwork and a bunch of hot, new Mobian babes so it gets my seal of approval.

>>148976404
Like seriously, look at this shit.

>>148971852
Democracy has always been a godawful idea. It ALWAYS ends up being tyranny of the ignorant. You cannot reasonably educate hundreds of millions of people. People take the path of least resistance, and that is always making up shit in your head versus spending years learning and trying to understand the world.