Newbie's Perspective Fang the Hunter Issue 2 Review
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AmusantTranscription
00:00Fang the Hunter, issue 2.
00:02Fang starts out the plot scared with a rock landing behind him because Knuckles is trying to injure him when he's nowhere near the Master
00:10Emerald yet, and it takes a while to start boring me by recapping.
00:15Why would you assume someone didn't read the previous issue when it was in issue 1?
00:20Or did you think Bean and Bart getting caught was that forgettable?
00:24If Fang thinks he's being hunted down to get injured by someone nearby,
00:28why is he talking out loud to risk him hearing him and going to him?
00:33His dialogue's really boring stating of the obvious, as if it thinks we're too dumb to know it already.
00:40It makes me wish there wasn't any dialogue when it's clearly not needed.
00:45And people complained about this with panders too. Oh, it's fine for IDW to be wordy because it's IDW.
00:52When you have a plot with a character on his own, it feels especially obvious that he shouldn't have dialogue because why would he talk to himself?
01:01It should be thought bubbles, but it's still one to be worth it if it's boring.
01:06He says that nobody came to check when he escaped that trap,
01:10so he jumps to the conclusion that he saw him get away even though nobody came to check and
01:17assumes he's leaving to prepare for his next move rather than staying there wanting to see if he'd get caught in another trap.
01:24No reason to assume there's only three traps in the whole zone.
01:29Then it goes to Sandopolis.
01:32With what I assume is a really recent badnik from a very recent time Eggman came here.
01:39Because Sonic would have freed all the badniks he could in Sonic 3.
01:44I would have liked if it took the opportunity to have him explore a new location in the island.
01:50He wonders how many priceless relics he could find here and decides against it, which only makes sense if he still plans to return.
01:58Out of nowhere, he says he needs his flunkies. He has no reason to think this.
02:05He hasn't actually struggled at all.
02:07He's been scared, but he'd face the same thing if they were at his side.
02:12Fang spent the majority of his career in every part of the franchise working alone, including in his own game.
02:18So it should be explained what ruined his self-esteem so much that he thinks this now.
02:23Okay, I can assume it's just because Sonic kept humiliating him in the games and that was a new thing to him.
02:29But if you don't explain that, some people won't come to that conclusion because he acts like he's confident every other time we see him.
02:37Acting confident hides insecurity from most people effortlessly.
02:41He says that if he were Knuckles, he'd take the high ground and decides to subvert his expectation of what he'd do.
02:47I love that he keeps actually using his brain.
02:51For once his intelligence being taken advantage of.
02:55He'd be one of the best villains if he was usually like this.
02:59So he gets to the high ground himself, and now Knuckles is lower than him.
03:04Now I have to just assume Knuckles is still on the high ground or else he was wrong.
03:09Fang whistles and causes his vehicle to justifiably startle Knuckles as a distraction so Fang could kick him from behind.
03:16Two smart moments are nice.
03:18But I'm wondering why his vehicle's here. I have to assume Knuckles stole it and drove it here to keep it away from him.
03:25Why didn't we see that instead of boring monologuing?
03:29We don't get to see his shoe impact Knuckles, but it's not like the flash is in front of his legs, so it's good enough.
03:37It's implied he fell in a hole.
03:40And I like that his vehicle is a way to light up dark places too.
03:44He looks down and compliments Knuckles for apparently no reason.
03:49Now I'm glad it cuts to Sonic because with having a vehicle that flies over the challenges of the level, there's no tension left.
03:57Sonic says he only thinks he's seeing Eggman's logo when the mustache instantly gives it away, even if it does look weird.
04:05So again, he's being weird.
04:08It's too bad that revealing this was an imposter all along would be too clever this comic because that explained his laziness about going on an adventure last issue.
04:16Which he officially had no excuse for if all he was gonna do was stand still in a plane for most of it.
04:23So he didn't need to go back to napping.
04:26Because he could have napped on the plane.
04:28He calls Tails a little buddy, and I get to see Tails wearing a scrapped thing from Sonic 3 in the plane.
04:34The airship vanishes in a flash of light and Sonic and Tails have an overreaction to it to force some people to laugh at this who laugh easily.
04:42Well, I'm just wondering why they're surprised when Tails already knew this could happen.
04:48Sonic wants a way to track this plane down and gets told he has scanner data he could analyze,
04:53but he can only do so at his workshop. I guess there's only so much room in the plane.
04:59Knuckles glides into Fang and we don't get to see him impact him outright.
05:04They fall onto the sand and we see Bean and Bark tied to each other.
05:07And I have to assume he got his rope as a gift from Tails.
05:13Knuckles didn't have any reason to move them here, where Fang was going.
05:17Fang doesn't let me take him seriously when he says he went through a lot to get here.
05:22Because he literally went through nothing.
05:25He ran and whistled once and then sat on something. How in the world do you not notice this?
05:31Again, Bean's out of character by looking resentful of him.
05:35It's not like this will indicate character development where he stops being annoying entirely.
05:40Fang whistles and somehow the vehicle knows that this time it's supposed to buzz on a very specific
05:47direction that frees them from the ropes instead of killing them or missing.
05:52I have to assume now that the vehicle can read its brainwaves to know exactly what he wants it to do.
05:58He could make it dance if he wanted to.
06:01That's believable in a world with sentient robots.
06:05But if you don't explain this a lot of people will call it a bullshit continuity error that only happens to help him out of a
06:11tough spot.
06:13Fang tells Knuckles what he wants.
06:15With the words who cares in response to Master Emeralds making clear that he's not referring to it.
06:22Still, because it could be considered an 8th Emerald in a way, naturally Knuckles assumes that he's using wordplay to trick him.
06:30Why would he use wordplay like this to trick him instead of just saying he's looking for relics instead?
06:36And again, having his thoughts be well-made crayon kids drawings demeans him when he hasn't done anything to justify that in years.
06:45Bean says he was hoping Knuckles would have a clue about this thing.
06:49Knuckles says he never leaves the island unless he has to.
06:52What about Sonic Triple Trouble? Was that on South Island? If it was on South Island, Knuckles is a hypocrite.
07:00Knuckles says he wouldn't want to add to spending every moment looking after one Emerald.
07:05That's stupid logic because he just had the 8th Emerald in front of the Master Emerald and never noticed a difference.
07:13So they end up back in the vehicle.
07:15Knuckles conveniently letting them leave his island to bother the people of the world again irresponsibly.
07:21Without explaining that's because he doesn't want them annoying him anymore.
07:25He's supposed to be a hero. It'd be inexcusable for a hero to be so selfish.
07:31Knuckles could just punch Bean's mouth to get him to shut up.
07:34If he was injured enough, he wouldn't be able to annoy him by talking and Knuckles threw rocks at Fang.
07:41So don't tell me he'd never injure someone when he could have killed Fang. He would have known it was lethal.
07:47So why is he being non-lethal now?
07:51If we're supposed to believe a steel pipe is lethal for also being hard, how would we believe a rock is non-lethal?
07:59He could keep them tied up in the cave he calls his home where he would keep the food he eats.
08:05Why would he let them go when it wouldn't be that much of an inconvenience for him to have to keep them alive and listen to them?
08:11I almost didn't think of this
08:14because it's not making a big monologue out of it.
08:17But this is almost as bad as Sonic letting Metal Sonic go. Fang tried to kill Sonic like eight times.
08:25Sonic would have told him this is basic conversation when they're alone together and even if he didn't he still thinks he's a thief.
08:33And Sonic at least presented himself as having a compassionate excuse for this.
08:37He just implied he wants them gone because he's antisocial even though imprisoned they wouldn't be a threat anymore.
08:44Sure, it'd be cruel to keep them prisoner, but we still keep criminals prisoner.
08:49For a reason.
08:51From doing just what they do. There are prisons in the main comic.
08:55But on a surface level it can be accepted because we all know he hates people being on his island and for all he knows
09:01all he does wrong is fight Sonic and Sonic can handle him. For all he knows all he does wrong is try to steal stuff.
09:09And other people can handle that.
09:11It caused a lot more cruelty to keep them imprisoned where Bark was. He doesn't even need to keep them tied up 24 7.
09:19He just needs to make sure there's a little hole in that prison to be used as a bathroom if there isn't one already somehow.
09:26The guy who made a fire trap in Sonic Triple Trouble wouldn't really be non-lethal.
09:32The guy who made traps in general wouldn't be against keeping people prisoner when he just had a prison as a trap.
09:40It seems to me like the arc should have ended with Knuckles imprisoning them.
09:43And that would be arranged just fine if Fang only went to Angel Island at the end of it.
09:49Fang doesn't think of the heroes as actually heroes for no reason at all.
09:53I'd assume he knows they are but just doesn't want to call them that out of hatred.
09:59You know Fang could have just gotten away while Knuckles was chasing after him. He didn't have to intentionally let him go.
10:06Again being he's out of character by saying he's wasting his time instead of finding everything fun and threatening to ditch him.
10:13If only he had Bark talk like another M, this wouldn't be as off-putting because Bark could be the one saying this.
10:21Instead he has to make him bark all of a sudden.
10:24Being being annoyed with him isn't the problem. He was in one panel in Archie and even then it felt weird but still justified in context.
10:33It's not as weird as him talking like a calm resentful normal person.
10:38Yeah, if you're gonna make him mad go all out so that he still feels wacky have him scream like a mood swinger.
10:45Fang stops the vehicle and says that if they don't want to be with him
10:49they can go ahead and jump out of it into the ocean.
10:52Showing how ill-timed their complaints were.
10:56They should have really known better than to complain now.
11:00Of course they plan to change their minds and I love that it got a menacing competent moment.
11:06But this wouldn't stop them from ditching him as soon as he goes to sleep when he's not over the ocean.
11:12This is no different than Azula threatening her mooks and thinking that it'll work when she has no authority anymore.
11:17Obviously saying he'd pay them later would be more of an incentive.
11:22I love seeing that he actually scared Bean because Bean's a villain.
11:26It should be interesting to see him not be one.
11:29Considering that apparently Sonic trusted him with the Chaos Emerald in the actual Sonic the Fighters plot.
11:36Some of Fang's convenient off-screen research pointed out a super remote island.
11:42Why did he do that research?
11:44How did he ever know to do it?
11:47At least they, one of my contacts, told me to.
11:51He says legend says so that means a rumor caused him to do it.
11:55If a legend says it has a treasure connected to the emeralds,
11:59logically the treasure would have already been stolen by someone.
12:03So he heads for a place with a base of Eggman's still on it.
12:07Like it wouldn't be worth the money to demolish it for the materials to keep Eggman from using it again.
12:13So many rich people would fund that.
12:17Of course it's Carnival Island.
12:20I hope they go to a remote island I haven't already seen after this because as nice as it is to see this place again,
12:27it's not creative.
12:29Why is all of Fang's compassion aimed at a vehicle? If he could feel compassion,
12:35he wouldn't have done anything he did in the games.
12:38This is a flanderization of Archie Fang with this thing.
12:43You'd have to stretch to say it was even flanderization of the game's fame.
12:47While you could assume he cared about the vehicle because it was useful,
12:51there's no indication he was really attached to it, let alone loved it to the point of wanting the best for it.
12:57Everyone who played his game at the time assumed that Eggman made this specifically for him to fight Sonic with because that's how it looks.
13:05It's just another Eggmobile.
13:07Unless Emmanuel said the vehicle was his, in which case only people who didn't read it would think that.
13:13And they also might have assumed that he invented the thing.
13:17The story wastes even more time on being wanting his cut from Fang and glaring.
13:23It feels cliche for some reason.
13:25I can't take it seriously.
13:28It's better have a payoff at least.
13:31Fang says he could speed up searching the island by looking at the camo footage looking at every level there.
13:37He gets nothing but static and for no apparent reason there's a flood and somehow he took forever to notice despite the fact that there's
13:45no evidence that he's almost deaf.
13:48People are right. He made him way too much of a goofball.
13:51I miss when he was taken seriously. I never thought he was funny. His name's Fang.
13:58It's pretty clear that his best moments are only when he's being threatening.
14:02And anyone could be written to be scared. He adds nothing this way.
14:07I like when the villains are scared when it's believable in context.
14:12And it makes another character look good.
14:14He ends up getting rescued by Eggman out of complete nowhere when there's no hint that Eggman still lived here.
14:21It literally just implied it was a broken down base because Knuckles' Chaotix came and went.
14:28There's no reason for him to come back here unless he went here to look for what he's after.
14:33Now I have to assume that the static because Eggman didn't want him accessing the place.
14:39Not to mention the flood was a trap.
14:42As the story ends,
14:44I have to assume the reason Eggman's mad at his own Flunky being in his territory is that he assumes he's there to steal or
14:50break his stuff because he magically got enough of a conscience to not want to work for him anymore.
14:55It makes sense that he'd be paranoid of someone turning on himself destructively because who wouldn't hate him?
15:01He's lucky Fang worked for him even once.
15:05Because if he has contacts, plenty of people could pay him, not just Eggman.
15:10This issue is by Ian Flynn.
15:13Nothing happens the entire time Fang was on Angel Island. What a waste.
15:18He just ran around or sat on a vehicle.
15:21Boring me with nothing happening and with most of his dialogue.
15:25Although I love a few of his moments.
15:28And it was nice to see Carnival Island again as someone who played the game,
15:32but that won't brainwash me into thinking this was mostly a good issue.
15:36Rare moments don't make an uncreative, uneventful story good.
15:42This only bored me when Fang was talking to himself without being clever.
15:46Most of the time I felt nothing about the writing one way or the other.
15:50And usually that's how the good issues are to me.
15:53And to be fair, it's rare for any Sonic story to wow me.
15:58I didn't hate it.
15:59And it's another issue that didn't feel contrived.
16:03But I'd be lying if I said it was well written.
16:06So it's only good if you include mildly disappointing in that definition.
16:10And most stories in general are.