Newbie's Perspective IDW Sonic Reviews Issue 68 & Fang the Hunter 1
Transcript
00:00Issue 68.
00:02First, I want to make a correction about my Issue 67 review.
00:05Panders never tweeted that Scourge slept with Bunny.
00:08That was just a misconception from how the art was drawn,
00:11and his actual tweet was an apology for the misunderstanding.
00:14The story starts out with the most uncreative idea for a Sonic story next to him fighting Badniks,
00:20because Sonic's gonna look for an emerald,
00:22which is exciting because it sounds like something important is gonna happen.
00:27But it's not like the heroes needed to put the world back together or something this time.
00:32But good on Tails for making a portable emerald radar.
00:36I guess he only recently made it, because otherwise, what took him so long to start doing this?
00:43Sonic calls Tails Buddy, and Tails flies using extreme gear,
00:47because apparently he thinks he needs that to keep up with Sonic when he's trying to go as fast as possible,
00:53when we all knew he could spin his tails to keep up with Sonic.
00:56Like he discovered when running after him for the first time in that cutscene in Essay 1.
01:02Sonic boosts ahead of Tails, of course.
01:05And come to think of it, he never boosts in IDW.
01:09Even though it'd be really useful for him to boost through enemies in the first few issues and so on.
01:16So only when his pride is at stake does he do it.
01:19And Tails hears a noise and warns him to slow down, and thankfully actually does follow his advice for once.
01:27But I don't know why he's questioning his order, because he would've heard the rumble too.
01:32Sonic falls into a hole.
01:34But Sonic characters are immune to fall damage, remember Tangle?
01:37So of course he won't get hurt.
01:40Tails just assumes he doesn't have rings right now.
01:43So he goes down and grabs Sonic.
01:46Then his airboard malfunctions for no reason, even though he's supposed to be a genius.
01:51Just once, I'd like it to go 10 issues without being pushed forwards by character incompetency.
01:57Then it'd be like how I'd expect Sonic to be.
01:59Come to think of it, it could've been explained that Kitsunami sabotaged his airboard.
02:05So that should've been explained to at the very least make him have a competent moment.
02:11Sonic can't get a foothold on the cliffs because it's slanted diagonally upwards,
02:16and he slides an overly dark panel into the cave.
02:19He asks if Tails is okay, calling him Bud.
02:22And Tails at least says the data was sent to his workshop.
02:26Notice that he says THE workshop, as if he only has one.
02:30When the comic kept insisting he had many workshops.
02:34I get why he'd want to be faster by not specifying which workshop.
02:39Because he knows which one it is.
02:42I like that Tails feels confident in calling dibs on deciding what's for dinner.
02:46It's convenient that Sonic lets him do that when he always ignores his advice.
02:50I thought Tails was unusually submissive in this comic.
02:54You need to do this way more often to fix his character.
02:57Because it looks like this is the only thing he relents on.
03:01The Emerald's energy signature has gotten stronger, and Tails says they fall into holes all the time.
03:08I can't remember that.
03:10Tails guesses from seeing the pickaxe that whoever was working here left in a hurry.
03:15It humanizes Sonic that he's actually nervous.
03:19They see some plants growing underground, and the only light is coming from a glowing white river.
03:25So that looks magical.
03:27Why would the plants even start growing down here when there's normally no light unless a person planted them?
03:33Emeralds don't create plants.
03:35Most of the time.
03:37I guess an Emerald is making the river glow.
03:40I guess Sonic's only asking an animal a question as a joke because he knows he can't answer.
03:46And he sees an Emerald.
03:48So what took so long for them to detect the Emerald?
03:51Rouge has a better Emerald radar than the genius Tails made.
03:56That he took ridiculously long to make.
03:59I guess Emerald radars are insanely hard to figure out making.
04:03I wish the writer wasn't too lazy to explain why they came close enough to the Emerald for it to be detected in the first place,
04:10when normally it wouldn't be on their route for the week, or else they would've detected it way earlier.
04:15So they couldn't have detected it on the way to the grocery store.
04:19Why didn't they ask to borrow Rouge's Emerald radar?
04:22A long time ago.
04:24There'd be no harm in her giving it up for a few minutes.
04:28Sonic talks to himself for quite a while, which is always cheesy.
04:32Out of nowhere, he gets scared by a giant monster with glowing white eyes,
04:36when usually we don't see giant monsters in random locations in the Sonic series.
04:41They'd have to be entire species, not just the occasional one for each location with a monster in it, or they wouldn't exist.
04:49This reminds me of Sonic Unleashed.
04:51I get to see Sonic fall to the rocky ground and see the impact.
04:55He kicks the monster, but it doesn't show the impact with it.
05:00Sonic tells Tails he could use his help, since it is a cramped space after all, never mind he can still jump.
05:07So why isn't he homie attacking it a bunch?
05:10I know this writer played Sonic and the Secret Rings, because I've read all of her comments on her fan comic.
05:17So why does she keep forgetting he can homie attack him?
05:21Or do something else?
05:23Or spin dash him?
05:25How did Tails recognize this thing as a salamander specifically?
05:30It's too big, and I doubt there's any lizards of that color.
05:33Why don't they just call it a monster?
05:36Apparently in this world, that's what all salamanders are like.
05:39If only people used these things against Robotnik.
05:43Sonic gets wiped out by the tail, but we don't see the impact.
05:47Tails says he can't get close, because his tail is scarier to him than Chaos 4.
05:53He says the salamander moves carefully.
05:56I guess this made him assume it was a robot, even though it could just be a smart animal.
06:01Tails fiddles with his tablet, and then eventually he throws his Extreme Gear,
06:05which is confusingly the same color scheme as his tablet, and Sonic lands on it to start flying away.
06:11By the way, why is he using his Extreme Gear now?
06:15The entire comic ignored those things for no reason.
06:19I shouldn't just have to assume that it was broken all this time, and he was taking that long to fix it.
06:25He thanks Tails for the save, and Tails says that the more Sonic disturbs the environment,
06:30the angrier the creature gets, while it barely even notices Tails.
06:35Sonic once again tries to talk one of his enemies into friendship with him,
06:40when it's really not like him to do that with an animal.
06:43At least he says he doesn't know if they can understand him.
06:47So it's definitely confusing.
06:49He apologizes for bursting into his home, and says that if the monster wants to keep the Emerald, it can.
06:55But if they don't take it, eventually more people are gonna come looking for it, and this place won't be safe.
07:01The monster makes a much better guardian of this thing than any of the heroes.
07:06None of the heroes would spend all of their time near it.
07:09I don't know why writers who love fan service didn't have Tails' pet teapup in IDW,
07:15because that could guard the Emerald.
07:18If Eggman comes here, he'll be in a giant drilling machine that could collapse the cave on the monster.
07:23So Sonic should say this to make his argument convincing.
07:27The monster has no idea what he plans to do with the Emerald.
07:30There's no apparent reason for why it wants it, other than thinking it's pretty.
07:34And usually I wouldn't expect animals to care about how pretty an object is.
07:40So it makes sense that he wouldn't think they're gonna abuse the Emerald's power if he doesn't think it can power a machine or do chaos control.
07:48The monster pushes a boulder to make it possible for them to leave this place.
07:53But it's annoying that Sonic's running theme of trying to talk his enemies out of it and leaving them to their own devices has to be rewarded here.
08:00So why is there an intelligent monster?
08:03Sonic thanks him, and all of a sudden it's sunset.
08:07Tails says what I'm thinking, that they were underground longer than he thought.
08:11Tails' intelligence is taken advantage of in a strong way for once,
08:15as he appreciates that the cave has a unique ecosystem that people can make discoveries in.
08:20Wait, why is he talking as if this is the only underground cave in the entire history of the planet?
08:26I mean, why is this so shocking and amazing to him?
08:30He agrees with him that they shouldn't let people know about the cave because that'd betray the monster.
08:35So why did he prioritize people studying this cave for the sake of a science field that he isn't even interested in over a person's well-being?
08:46Sonic lampshades that the monster is like Knuckles, making the story look less creative.
08:51He calls him little brother with his hand on his back,
08:55and Sonic ends the story using the Extreme Gear to fly over the terrain because it's slanting downhill.
09:01This shows why he does need the Extreme Gear.
09:04There wasn't even one panel last issue building up to them looking for an emerald,
09:09which would be nice since the heroes have ignored them for so long, and Eggman would abuse them.
09:14He can go super once he gets level 7,
09:17and that's just gonna be used for a get-out-of-jail-free card to resolve the end of an arc and then he'll lose them all.
09:25I always thought it was weird that he suddenly got called Hunter instead of Sniper,
09:30but Sniper was weird too. At least it fit what he did.
09:34We never saw him go hunting, so it's just a lie for censorship.
09:39It starts with Sonic being spied on from a safe distance by Fang,
09:43with an entire page consisting of this with no plot progression.
09:47And I have to assume he's whispering because otherwise he should have heard Fang's voice and looked at him.
09:53No one sleeps that deep during the day.
09:56It wasn't necessary to have Bean embark with him right away when they're not in the name of the miniseries,
10:01which gave the impression that this was supposed to be Fang's solo adventure, at least for a while.
10:06And it doesn't help that I was reminded that there's no canon basis to them being a team in the games.
10:12There's no proof they were a team in Sonic the Fighters.
10:16So this is just being pushed because it's by an Archie writer,
10:19which I know for a fact is annoying to Game Purists.
10:23Which is weird because the whole appeal of this comic is supposed to be that it's about being like the games.
10:29And would I be okay with Bean showing up later in this thing?
10:33Because to contrast Fang, it makes him react to him, and Fang alone talking to himself would get boring.
10:38It would have been refreshing at this point to see Fang being alone for a while,
10:42or working with someone other than Bean for a few issues,
10:46as long as the plot had enough happening in it that it was interesting.
10:49But we don't even get one page of it.
10:52What would be the point of the miniseries existing if it was nothing but same old, same old?
10:57Artistically, I mean.
10:59Fang whistles, a boulder gets launched as a result, and it sends Sonic's hammock upwards,
11:05and he's just fine, and the boulder misses him as he yawns.
11:09What was Eggman's main enemy even doing sleeping outside in the open?
11:14Not even in a city where there'd be people around him to wake him up.
11:18There's a reason I never picture him doing that.
11:21Even Boom Sonic has a good sense of sleep indoors most of the time.
11:25Bean's impressed with Sonic, being interesting but mildly annoying,
11:30and it usually makes no sense because of the vague,
11:33he's crazy, when I doubt any specific mental disorder would make you like him,
11:38so I'd love to know which one it is.
11:40Sonic reacts casually to Bean not taking him seriously,
11:43which makes sense because he's fast enough to easily avoid it.
11:47Fang gets worried that his vehicle would get blown up.
11:50Again.
11:52At least this time he panics enough to push Bean and land next to a bomb.
11:57I say at least because it's new.
11:59Its explosion merely sends the two of them flying upwards without even being knocked out,
12:04so I'm forced to assume they had rings to sort of protect them.
12:08Sonic must be assuming that too, or he wouldn't be cheerful at seeing people get blown up.
12:13I think.
12:15After all, Sonic wasn't happy about thinking Eggman took a lethal fall and lost the world.
12:20His recklessness backfires on him because Bark grabbed him since he was standing still to mock people,
12:25and I get to see his head impact the ground.
12:29But the instantly spin dashes to get him over his head and spin him around for good measure and throw him.
12:35It looked cool and made sense.
12:38He talks condescendingly to them, and I have to put up with Bean's text being upside down to inconvenience the readers.
12:44At least it was someone who never has anything important to say.
12:48Sonic lampshades Eggman's laziness in not attacking him himself.
12:52I wonder if the writer thinks this is about Sad AM, because this is a legitimate complaint I've seen get made with it.
12:59Bang says he wasn't hired and was just trying to force him to tell him about the 8th Chaos Emerald.
13:05Sonic calls him out repeatedly that there is no 8th Emerald,
13:09and I'm wondering if this is an intentional reference to the 8th Emerald in Sonic the Fighter
13:13or if the writer didn't know about it.
13:15There were also more than 7 Emeralds in Sonic Spinball,
13:18which Sega said is canon recently,
13:20without clarifying that sometimes Sonic gathered the same Emeralds he already gathered
13:24and explaining how he ever lost them.
13:27The 8th Emerald in Fighters makes sense because a player gets cloned,
13:30so the Emerald he adds was cloned too.
13:33Sonic doesn't say that the 8th Emerald in Fighters vanished after he went super in a puff of cosmic logic,
13:39which is the only way I'm saying this after Fighters would make sense.
13:43Sonic should have known what they planned to do with an Emerald.
13:46I like that Beans gave me no answers for what he'd do with money.
13:50Why didn't they already get a portable freezer?
13:53Oh yeah, it's doing the concept of characters other than the Chaotix wanting to be able to afford stuff.
13:59Flynn has said Sega told him there is no money in the Sonic universe,
14:03despite Team Sonic Racing having the Chaotix still be motivated by money,
14:08and IDW's previous issues being like that as well.
14:11Fans have taken this to mean the Chaotix are the exception.
14:15But with this panel, fans and the people skeptical of Flynn are gonna take this two different ways.
14:20Fans will say that Sega's loosening up with their rule now,
14:24and critics will take it as proof that Sega didn't say there's no money.
14:28It said, you're not allowed to make Sonic and Tails be motivated by trying to get money,
14:32and Flynn might have at best misinterpreted this based on what story idea was turned down,
14:37and at worst just tried to make Sega look bad again.
14:40And yes, Sonic and Tails aren't greedy.
14:42But if it was explained that they wanted to donate to charity or buy food for the hungry with money,
14:47by all means, they should want money.
14:49So I like that a representative of Sega said they take things on a case-by-case basis.
14:54Maybe Sega would have agreed in that case.
14:57To my understanding, he was told he can't make a story about them trying to get money for the rent.
15:02Fang wants money to upgrade his vehicle,
15:05which has a long name so I avoid saying it.
15:08Sonic complains because he hasn't napped enough yet.
15:11Again, this is like Boom and X-Sonic.
15:14But he started out his story in Sonic Adventure by napping outside.
15:18So unless that's not how Sega views Sonic anymore,
15:21that is like Game Sonic.
15:23It was just done more in the shows.
15:25And it's still not like Classic Sonic.
15:28Finally, Fang landshakes that he's wasting his time here and decides to leave.
15:33Why is the focus now on Sonic's point of view in the Fang the Hunter comic?
15:38You'd expect a comic called that to always be from Fang's point of view.
15:42But apparently the writer of Sega had no faith in Fang to keep being compelling that long.
15:47When a character could be compelling if you had enough things happen to him throughout the story.
15:52This would be like if Sonic was one of the main characters of the Tangle and Whisper miniseries.
15:57I like seeing Sonic more than Fang because he's more interesting.
16:01For better or for worse.
16:03I'm just pointing it out.
16:05Eventually, Tails warns Sonic that he's got trouble.
16:08And Sonic has to remind himself not to lose it with him.
16:12This isn't like Game Sonic at all.
16:14Or regular IDW Sonic.
16:16But it's been clear from the beginning that Classic IDW Sonic acts different.
16:20Why do his eyes morph when his eyes are closed when he still has skin-colored eyelids?
16:26It looks awful.
16:28Tails conveniently doesn't care about Sonic expressing resentment of him out loud.
16:33Implying they've had to get used to this.
16:35Tails tells him Marble Zone got attacked by a flying battleship.
16:39Sonic's response is relatable to me.
16:42It really doesn't matter that a place already in ruins with lava got put on fire and ruined some more.
16:49Archaeologists would beg to differ.
16:51It's common for people to say that old man-made structures and generals should be preserved just because they're old.
16:57But none of them are always firing.
16:59Still, Game Sonic wouldn't be apathetic to the idea of going after Eggman.
17:04For any reason.
17:06He would be interested in checking out what he's doing from curiosity to see if he's capturing the animals we know exist there.
17:13He doesn't act like he actually cares about the fact that he's doing that again.
17:18Which Tails didn't even say.
17:20He could just be assuming.
17:22It looks like he's only getting up because he wants to humor Tails.
17:26Which would only make sense if he thinks he wouldn't ever stop whining otherwise.
17:31Regular IDW Sonic almost never humors Tails.
17:35Who consistently backs off after the second time he's dismissed by him.
17:39So this implies that this Tails has a spine with him.
17:43And no wonder if he had to get used to insults.
17:46He can get Sonic to the point of resenting him and not lose his friendship.
17:50No wonder he's braver with him.
17:52It's so ironic that this is better for him.
17:56Sonic saying Eggman's up to his usual nonsense would only make sense if he assumed he was capturing animals there despite not being told that anyways.
18:05He shouldn't even hesitate to get up then.
18:08He's supposed to care about saving people at least.
18:11His theme song says he's just living by his own feelings right before saying he won't give up or compromise.
18:18Showing that the two are connected.
18:20And it says he'll never give up the fight.
18:22It means that he's fighting against evil because that's how he lives by his own feelings.
18:27Because he wants to fight Eggman.
18:29It doesn't say he won't do it if he's attacking a place that was already ruined and full of lava.
18:35When he really should be stopping him from making it to another base of his.
18:39To be fair the theme song doesn't say that he'll always pick bothering Eggman over getting some rest if he needs it.
18:46Because that makes him look stupid.
18:48And in this issue he's not.
18:50Someone as excitable as Sonic wouldn't nap unless he made himself overtired.
18:55And it'd be stupid to put himself in danger when he's exhausted.
18:58But exhausted isn't the case here if he's still capable of fighting right now and remaining cheerful and witty while he's at it.
19:05With no hint of being tired.
19:08So he's had enough of a nap to get back in fighting shape.
19:11Why is he even considering not going after Eggman to continue a nap he doesn't need if he already knows Eggman's capturing animals?
19:19Instead of Tails just saying Sonic.
19:22He should've been written to tell Sonic that Eggman can make a new base in Marble Zone.
19:27Or at least use his materials to build dangerous things.
19:30Like missiles that he could fire at a city before anyone would get to stop him.
19:34That's why he should be concerned.
19:36And as far as we saw in the games he never did that before with a place.
19:40So it'd be believable for Sonic to have not considered that.
19:43Sonic should've been written to say he knows Eggman's up to his usual nonsense then.
19:47Since Eggman can fight well and knows it.
19:49He'd be right to say that he knows he'll be able to smash whatever robot or mecha Eggman sends to him as a result of smashing up Marble Zone.
19:56Might as well let Eggman have fun building them.
19:59But even in the classic days he still built the Death Egg.
20:02For the purposes of threatening people other than Sonic.
20:05And it's not like Eggman to just have a place attacked for no reason.
20:11It'd have to be for his own benefit.
20:14Just to test out a new weapon would be good enough for a reason.
20:18For all we know he did that every single time made a new thing that could kill Sonic.
20:22So it is usual.
20:24But why should that harmless testing cause Sonic to get himself involved?
20:28Eggman would do that anywhere no matter what.
20:31He can't get him to stop as a pacifist.
20:33So smashing his robots and yelling at him for this would be pointless.
20:36And it's not hurting anyone.
20:38So what if it causes fires?
20:39That's what firefighters are for.
20:41And it's not going to go there with a fire extinguisher.
20:43So there's nothing he can do about this.
20:45So it's pragmatic of him to not get involved.
20:47If by usual nonsense he's not referring to capturing animals.
20:51If Tails isn't.
20:52Then it would be selfish of him to force him to stop napping.
20:55So that he can waste his time going to yell at Eggman and smash badniks he can smash anytime.
21:00So it's fine if he puts it off for a few minutes for his own health.
21:03Because while every extra minute would be another where the family and friends of the kidnapped animals are missing them.
21:09Sonic can't survive by spending every single second of the day saving people.
21:13Though this argument only applies if 1. Sonic is still tired and was just forcing himself to act like he wasn't and can't do that for long.
21:21And 2. If Eggman has so many animals captured that to free them all in a row would require sleep deprivation.
21:27And I doubt it because not only is Sonic just that fast.
21:31But in the game Sonic goes somewhere if animals are getting captured in a place and badniks show up there.
21:36This implies the places you go through in the game in question are the only parts of the world with badniks at that time.
21:42And after Tails tells Sonic that the battleship vanished.
21:45Sonic acts excited like he's not tired at all.
21:48And runs off wanting to see a ghost battleship.
21:51Which is a funny way of saying a battleship with a cloaking device or the ability to chaos control warp away.
21:57Both of which Eggman should be able to do.
21:59He can make anything.
22:02But after Unleashed I could believe Sonic's just so tough that you wouldn't be able to tell if he still needed a nap.
22:08He's still like excited to see something cool anyways.
22:11That's what I have to go with so he doesn't look like a total asshole.
22:15Marble Zone has animals in it so he'd have no reason to assume Eggman wasn't putting animals in danger by attacking it.
22:22And Tails did say there were witnesses to that.
22:25So the hero I know would never be reluctant to do whatever it takes to protect those animals.
22:30Just because they could run away from the danger.
22:33Wanting to be a hero is one of his defining features.
22:37But this is making it look like he doesn't want to be a hero.
22:40At least not when he needs a nap.
22:42He wants to see cool stuff.
22:44It looks like the idea of seeing cool stuff makes him happier than the idea of saving animals from badniks and annoying Eggman.
22:51What he's all about.
22:53Even Archie and Flightway Sonic aren't like this.
22:57Just have him be called out on it and I'd be able to forgive this as an interesting anti-hero reinterpretation.
23:04My problem is Flynn literally said his Sonic is the Sega Standard.
23:09When does he even get the classic Sonic right?
23:12And not making Sonic like the game Sonic isn't appealing to the fans that want it to be like the games.
23:19Which is the whole appeal of the comic.
23:21Classic Sonic is written as more immature to indicate that he's younger.
23:26So it says nothing good that even with less experience with Eggman's deeds, he's still jaded at this point from seeing people get inconvenienced by Eggman too much that he no longer has a strong reaction when they are.
23:37Which is relatable, but not in character.
23:40Sonic's character bio says he hates injustice.
23:43He got mad at seeing animals get dropped in Lost World.
23:46He cared about the animals in the Sonic 1 manga.
23:49And Sonic's always been meant to be an inspirational paragon first and foremost.
23:54His being relatable came in with him being impatient and rude to his enemies.
23:59But that's where it ended.
24:01Anything else like bullying rival of his would distract him from us revering him as a hero to aspire to be.
24:07Everyone has moments of impatience and being mad at their enemies.
24:11Bullying Antoine or selfish apathy like this crosses a line into him not being a hero while it's happening.
24:17You'd think Sega would care about its mascot being portrayed like this in something like the games.
24:23If Sonic was completely sleep-deprived, I'd get it.
24:26But we didn't find out what Sonic could've been doing to tire himself out enough to need a nap.
24:32And I have to assume he was fighting badniks.
24:34Sonic napping is the least interesting way to introduce him to the story.
24:39Having him running and explaining that he likes exploring would tell us what Sonic does in his free time.
24:45To make it more believable.
24:47To go with the fact that he's a jerk to be relatable.
24:50Compassionate people wouldn't always find him relatable.
24:54Finally, the story goes back to Fang.
24:56Who at least keeps it simple.
24:58I hate how Bean looks in the second panel.
25:01If Fang's an expert treasure hunter, that logically means he's gotten rich from all the treasure he got by now.
25:07So he's just doing this for fun.
25:09And even rich people can be greedy.
25:11And as for why they haven't already bought a portable freezer?
25:14Bart's teammates keep spending the money before he gets to buy one.
25:18As for why Fang hasn't spent it on already upgrading his vehicle?
25:22Either he has a gambling problem or he did buy the upgrades only for them to get smashed by Sonic.
25:27Fang says he went after Sonic first because he's easier to get to than someone on a floating island.
25:33Once again, I see the Master Emerald shining for no reason.
25:37Unlike in the games and early IDW.
25:39Fang lampshades Knuckles slacking on the job.
25:42This would make sense if Knuckles was going to the bathroom or getting food or water.
25:47That would take a few minutes.
25:49So it would make the most sense if he waited a few minutes.
25:53Not assuming he was being completely unlike himself.
25:56But there's no proof that he didn't wait a few minutes.
25:59Bart silently suggests stealing the Master Emerald.
26:02So much for, according to Amy, he's good and just has bad friends.
26:07Fang says they've got other priorities than taking an unguarded, much more valuable jewel.
26:12What is he thinking?
26:14Just have Bart smash it and pick up the pieces.
26:17It would only take a few minutes and he's not in that much of a hurry to go get the rumored 8th Emerald.
26:23Which he must assume only recently got created or landed on the planet for it to make sense.
26:28Uncharacteristically, Bean says that he and Bart are getting tired of Fang's antics.
26:34Usually he doesn't have a brain.
26:36Bean says he's with him so he can have fun activities to do.
26:39But he doesn't need Fang to think about what to do for fun.
26:42That was foreshadowed in that he thought about playing a soccer ball on his own.
26:47Fang gets told that he's talked him into all sorts of wacky jobs.
26:51Which he likes.
26:52So why does he say it's a principle of the matter?
26:54It's not like Bean, or at least Flynn Bean, to be opposed to doing something wacky.
27:00Or risking his life.
27:02He thought being blown up was cool.
27:04I like that Fang looks smart by getting Eggman to reward them with gems in advance.
27:09It makes sense that with Sonic getting all of the Emeralds so many times,
27:12Eggman thought that for them he needed someone with treasure hunting experience.
27:16Something he didn't have and couldn't look up online to download into a robot.
27:21So he needed him too badly to risk him not helping him because he refused.
27:25Fang says that they got an Emerald out of their last comic adventure.
27:29He's winning the argument here.
27:31He only loses when told that Amy ran after him with a hammer for pie theft.
27:36That would only not be worth it if she caught up to them.
27:39So he's only right because of something that happened off screen.
27:42Fang says that if his plan works, they'll get the most money they ever did.
27:47And that alone gets Bean to stick around with them.
27:50Rendering his entire argument with him a pointless waste of my time.
27:54It made me complain about it for nothing.
27:57It turns out Knuckles was watching them from the bushes all along.
28:01It's not like him to hide from a potential Master Emerald thief.
28:05He'd stay in front of it.
28:07Then I see Fang at Mushroom Hill Zone, which he's never been to before.
28:11As much as I like seeing those mushrooms,
28:14the comic would have more of a point if he went to a new setting, giving me something new.
28:19Fang stays tracked, but I don't.
28:22He tells Bean to be quiet.
28:24Bean bounces and gets trapped in vines.
28:27And Fang says he was following orders and being quiet and then asks where he went.
28:31I never had the impression that Fang didn't see what happened to him
28:35because it'd be an extra punchline for Fang and Bark to have witnessed this.
28:39They would have because bouncing off the mushrooms makes a noise.
28:43So he was not being quiet, functionally.
28:46He wanted him to be not quiet so that Knuckles wouldn't get alerted to them.
28:50So he would have looked at him when he was bouncing from the noise it made.
28:54Instead, he arbitrarily doesn't know where he is so he can tell Bark to split up.
28:59Either way, Bark would have been lured into a trap of Knuckles'
29:02and gotten blown by magic wind into prison.
29:06I'm glad to see Knuckles using a trap again.
29:09Fang notices from the tracks that Knuckles has been looking for him and the story ends.
29:14So this is why he's being called a hunter.
29:16Not because he's literally a hunter like Elmer Fudd,
29:19which would justify being called that,
29:22but because they had to stretch the definition to him trying to hunt a person down.
29:27People try to look for people all the time and that doesn't get them called hunters.
29:31So where's his gun?
29:33Why wouldn't it be strapped to his back?
29:35I would never imagine Fang to be stupid enough to go around without his gun and vehicle.
29:41So did it get completely ruined off screen?
29:45This intriguing issue by Evan Stanley was about Sonic and Tails somehow falling into a grotto
29:51because Tails' extreme gear somehow malfunctions despite him being a genius
29:56who's been perfecting it since Sonic Riders.
29:59And there's no reason that he would have the extreme gear anywhere that Kitsunami could access.
30:05He can't access his workshop.
30:07And despite them finding an emerald,
30:09it still felt like an insulting filler issue because it didn't continue off the previous issue like it really wanted.
30:15The concept of the underground monster protective of its home just rips off an episode of Sad AM.
30:22But I'm glad it's really a monster and not a robot for an unlikable character.
30:27Because that's more unique for Sonic.
30:30It still feels very arbitrary that there's all of a sudden a monster guarding a place in the Sonic series.
30:36Let alone an intelligent one.
30:38This isn't the world of Arabian Nights.
30:40This isn't the Unleashed adaptation.
30:42So it's hard to take this seriously because we never see monsters like this.
30:46It's not a salamander if it's that big.
30:49It's a believable twist that Sonic talked him out of it when it showed no indication of being able to understand English.
30:54Because Tails figured out it was intelligent.
30:57And this is a magical world where anything magical can happen.
31:02I just can't help but be confused by it because it came out of nowhere.
31:06It's not a bad story to go through.
31:09But it's not what anyone wanted after the cliffhanger of last time.
31:13If Sonic was in character, he would've started homie attacking it.
31:16And then he'd be trapped down here if he couldn't push the boulder.
31:20This issue is by Ian Flynn.
31:22And it's about Bang and his team getting bested by Sonic in a failed attempt to intimidate info out of him.
31:27And then wander around Angel Island.
31:30Looking for Knuckles to do the same thing to him.
31:32Because he's looking for info on something potentially interesting.
31:36Not much of a plot.
31:38And the reason I had a lot to talk about was that I had to explain why Sonic was out of character.
31:43Not just for the sake of an analysis, but also because some people think he was just like the games in issue 50.
31:49When Game Sonic happily killed what he thought was a person in Black Knight.
31:53This isn't even a situation where it would look on the surface like he's in character because he's reminding us he likes freedom.
31:59Never mind that Game Sonic is never outright chatty about himself.
32:04But it should be obvious that it's weird how uncharacteristically selfish Sonic is here for no reason.
32:11Classic Sonic's attitude didn't translate to not wanting to do good for its own sake.
32:17Otherwise he wouldn't have destroyed a single badnik in Sonic 1 without Tails to humor him.
32:23He wouldn't have even beaten that game.
32:25Why would he have even gone through Marble Zone in Sonic 1 if he was always like this?
32:30And people like to defend IW Sonic by telling you to take him as his own separate character.
32:35And I do.
32:37But then it's inconsistent when they say they like him because he's being like Game Sonic.
32:42That comes off like people will say anything to make the comic look better just for that.
32:47And will always like Sonic in it.
32:50These are two panels with nothing to do with the plot.
32:54It's just in the summary because the only interesting thing about the story was that because it was entirely uncreative.
33:03I was okay with the experience of most of the story.
33:07At no point did it actually frustrate me.
33:10At the same time, it was boring looking back on it.
33:14The only reason I was invested was because I wanted to see where the story focusing on Fang would go.
33:21He does nothing but walk around, wanting to get a jewel.
33:25If it weren't for the exact thing he's looking for, this would be the most disappointingly uncreative idea for his miniseries.
33:32Why even have one at all then?
33:34I already knew he usually looked for jewels. What else does he do?
33:38That's not very exciting.
33:40I come to a new story to see a new story.
33:43All I got was new dialogue that isn't anything special.