#he DOES have a connection to the villain (eggman) but he doesn't even fight him half the time - sonic does

[multicolour-ink]

Time to upset the entire Sonic fandom by proclaiming that I think Shadow the Hedgehog is an overrated character.

[highway-in-the-sky]

With the first ark of the idw comic I wanna take a breather and go over it all. Give some more in depth thoughts, I will start to do the same at the end of issues for IDW as well as archie when it gets more actually serious, as well as talk about arks when they end.

The idw sonic comic starts on such a high note, This first ark feels exactly how a sonic story should, great characterization of the main crew, fun action set pieces and quick pacing. It doesn't get too bogged down or doesn't stay for too long. Right off the bat it nails the characterization of sonic and most of his crew which, to me at least, is the most important thing about this comic. I could watch sonic and friends to anything from the extreme to the mundane as long as they are written well. It was also very exciting to see neo metal sonic and metal overlord again. I loved the mr. tinker plot even if I wish we got to spend more time on it and all the original characters introduced slapped.

Rough and Tumble are you usual mooks, the duo that can take a punch but ultimately will get beaten in the end without too much issue. However they are such cool designs (especially a fan of rough's) and are played goofy enough that it's just fun when they show up. They also got that team rock intro and people make fun of them for it. It's a bit I will always love every time.

Tangle is great, it's nice to have a solely action oriented female character who can party alongside sonic. Sure amy is there but amy has more responsibility as well as has a lot of baggage through her history in the franchise, plus you have to worry about romance shenanigans which is kinda exhausting with those two (I have been jerked around with this ship for so fucking long with the will they won't they, just say they if they will or won't already). Tangle is just here to fucking party and I'm super here for it.

Whisper needs a hug, While we are missing most the pieces currently (I'll get into more with the tangle and whisper mini series), she is already a super fun character. She's super cool and I love her design a lot, I can't say much though without talking about the mini series

and Starline my favorite, It's just fun to see a character who's diehard loyal to eggman but not blindly so. While we haven't seen much yet so I won't get too into it, I love how even when starline goes under eggman's nose it's not to double cross or backstab but to hopefully bring him along with him. Sure in litteral outcome this does end up similarly to backstabbing but the context makes it so much more interesting then just "I'm going to stab the main villain in the back."

However it's not all sunshine and rainbows I do have some complaints, Namely with you guessed it Shadow, and trust me I'll have more to complain about as this goes on but for where we currently are I'll say this, he's not totally terrible, his first appearance is actually pretty enjoyable, sonic and his moral conflict feels very in character even if shadows stubbornness to the extreme it's shown feels ooc. However his lack of willingness to actually work with anyone and listen to plans is just so frustrating and contradicts how he acts in other games, like heroes and 06 (I know 06 isn't canon but god damn shadow's characterization is on point and I think looking at it for reference is fine). Now I know that this isn't entirely the writers fault, this is obvious when you look at Even Stanley and compare her writing of shadow in her personal sonic fan comic to the idw comic and it becomes obvious. I've also heard good things about shadows writing on Ians Archie run so it stands for him as well. A lot of the problems can be laid at segas feet as they want him to be this standoffish lone wolf kinda edgy rivil to sonic who cares for nothing but a good fight and that's just not really shadow. It ignores that shadow has made connections with team dark and has this strong mutual respect with sonic. It just makes me dread seeing my favorite character instead of excited. I will say while mandates are the major point of blame here I will say some of this can be layed at the Ian Flynns feet as he's not perfect. This becomes clear as Evan Stanley's writing of shadow is much much better (even if still restrained in this confine of the mandates) Shadow in the Chao race ark is much better than the battle for angle island ark and def metal virus. I'm getting ahead of myself but what I will say is this is my biggest complaint so far with the writing. So far Ian Flynn has done a great job aside from this and it doesn't prevent me from enjoying the comic

also so far all the artist do an amazing job the art in this comic is exilant!