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00:00 Issue 66.
00:02 What is Knuckles waste time counting down from three? Why can't he and the Chaotix instantly run at the Rokes?
00:09 Jet has a good sense to want to split up the loot.
00:13 He tells Storm to toss him and wave the relics as they're I guess
00:18 magnetically stuck to their airboards above him.
00:21 But how do they have the time to say all this?
00:24 This took a couple of seconds for them and with how close Knuckles was to Storm,
00:29 Knuckles would be hitting Storm right now.
00:31 The only way they could have the time to say all this would be if Knuckles stood still for no reason.
00:37 The artist should have drawn this as showing Storm dodging Knuckles' punch and
00:43 said I'm baffled from the first scene as it somehow managed to even screw this up.
00:48 Everyone who played as Knuckles knows that he is not so slow in the game that he wouldn't have had time to stop Storm from
00:55 throwing the relics upwards just to drag out things.
00:59 When realistically, he'd have gotten them all punched to the ground and knocked out in seconds.
01:04 Knuckles runs fast enough to go through loop-de-loops in the games.
01:08 The fans of this comic love it because due to the absence of Sad AM concepts, it seems to be faithful to the games.
01:14 But this isn't.
01:17 This makes it hard to believe this is being written by a Sonic fan.
01:21 Because the only way things would have gotten to this point would be if
01:24 IDW took place in another canon where Knuckles never went on an entire adventure where he had to go through loop-de-loops,
01:31 whether Sonic 3 or Heroes.
01:33 He's literally four feet away from Storm.
01:36 There's no reason to have an entire fight scene because the rogues aren't likable as a whole.
01:42 So I think everyone would be fine with simply seeing them punched and knocked to the ground.
01:47 Especially if it takes multiple hits to knock them out.
01:52 But no, the last issue had to end its story on a cliffhanger so people would be expecting an entire fight scene when the next issue happens.
01:59 One could have easily had them get punched out there.
02:02 Again, Knuckles should be guarding Master Emerald right now, not valuing relics over it.
02:08 But this would make no sense in canon either way because the other characters behind him are also fast enough to run through loop-de-loops.
02:15 And I doubt Espio doesn't have super speed in the IDW canon.
02:20 Although what he did there was so forgettable that I don't remember if he used it.
02:23 So in the IDW universe, Vector, Espio, and Charmy are slow as well.
02:29 So they never went on an adventure in its version of Heroes at all. So Eggman got free of the vault later there.
02:35 At least it was realistic enough to have Charmy effortlessly steal back the relic from Jet because it can fly.
02:42 He gets told he was stealing and
02:45 apologizes, giving it back to him. The perfect example of how extremely dumb he writes the characters to be.
02:51 Not even Fleetway Charmy would do this.
02:55 I could have understood this happening though if Jet got the chance to explain that as a relic, Knuckles doesn't legally own it or need it.
03:03 And he's being selfish by not letting the rogues make money off it.
03:07 It isn't useful for anything but being sold and if Knuckles gets it back, if Eggman really wanted the relics,
03:14 he could just go back to Angel Island to steal them back whenever.
03:17 Well, if the rogues stole the relics, Eggman might never know where to go find them.
03:22 Because maybe the one who bought it wouldn't want to admit they bought something on the black market.
03:27 And he didn't really care about the relics.
03:30 So he would have only gotten them back on the way through
03:34 digging through Angel Island and searching for other stuff.
03:39 He wouldn't go out of his way to look for the person who bought the relics.
03:44 It all depends on whether Angel Island is officially under the legal jurisdiction of Knuckles.
03:49 And I doubt it because he's not a mayor.
03:52 Since nobody but Knuckles lives there and it's over the ocean, I'd assume it falls under maritime law.
03:59 So no living government would own it. And Knuckles saying he owns it would have as much
04:03 legitimacy as saying that you own some moon dust because you found it on the moon.
04:08 Especially if you say you own it because you're descended from Buzz Aldrin or something.
04:13 As for yelling Charmy's name after this can make this a funny joke if you're in the right mood.
04:19 But it's character breaking humor for Charmy.
04:23 There was only one line as far as I remember where the games established him as very stupid.
04:28 Where he asks what's a top-secret disc when he'd know what all those words mean.
04:32 But he's usually not that stupid. So it's the exception.
04:37 This action would get him scolded by his friends.
04:40 But that's the only thing that makes it stupid. And doing something isn't bad just because your friends would disapprove.
04:46 I don't know if Vector would have the guts to ground Charmy.
04:49 I think he'd throw a tantrum and he knows that. So I can understand him thinking the right thing to do is work a minor scolding.
04:55 But still it's not established that Charmy cares this much about society's idea of morality and would instantly sympathize with thieves
05:03 because he's easily manipulated in a way that doesn't appeal to selfishness.
05:08 And besides why couldn't Jed have simply rammed Insem with his airboard and taken the relic from him?
05:14 Fans hate him. So if the writer really cared about fans service, he would have a lot of slapstick against him.
05:20 And Jed and Storm. Which is all I'm excited for.
05:23 Ezio jumps on the airboard and he asks Jed if he could handle heavy turbulence.
05:29 Implying that he's the one who's causing the airboard to spin.
05:34 The only way it could cause it to spin is if he was super fast.
05:38 And then he would have crashed in Storm and started beating him up.
05:44 While Jed was giving him the plan.
05:47 Charmy worries about Ezio while the ocean splashes.
05:51 Wade's concern over Jed gets punished by Vector getting the chance to bite her board.
05:57 To be fair, she should care about Jed, but it's a shame her compassion backfired on her.
06:03 I like that Vector tried to talk, but I don't think anyone would here.
06:07 That airboard has to be the best made thing for Vector to not instantly chop a piece off it with his fangs.
06:13 Because he can bite robots and damage them.
06:16 Storm lands the first punch on someone who's faster than him.
06:20 I've always assumed that Knuckles is only fast when running or gliding.
06:24 And he's close enough to him that he wouldn't get to start running and therefore take advantage of his speed to hit faster anyways.
06:30 Still, I question the logic of the least liked character getting the first hit in and dodging the attack.
06:37 Which maybe he wouldn't have if Knuckles hadn't risked getting hit by wasting time with the one-liner.
06:43 You'd think Guardian training would discourage that.
06:46 I hate that he damages the dog, because someone's gonna have to pay for that and I bet the writing won't have the tax avid be him.
06:53 Even though it'd show him being a hero.
06:55 Why is Storm dazed?
06:58 Why the hell can Vector talk properly now when his mouth is so close to the airboard? Shouldn't he be muffled?
07:04 Plus, the mouth was drawn awkwardly anyways. It should've shown him from behind instead to hide it.
07:10 Wait, first it showed him as having all of his teeth be gold. And now they aren't?
07:15 He threatens her that the airboard might be thrown off balance, so she agrees to land.
07:20 And Jet agrees to let Charmy take the relic while already exhausted.
07:24 Just because the airboard smashed into the ocean.
07:27 And I did get to see Espio land a single punch on him.
07:31 Is the fight seriously over without me getting to see a single attack against Jet and Storm?
07:38 How in the world could the writing be this clueless?
07:42 Why bother showing a fight against unlikable characters this way?
07:46 At least there was variety in what happened, with each character being handled a different way so that it feels like it took effort to sync up.
07:54 But it's not a good story if it just leaves you mad afterwards at the missed opportunity.
07:59 Vector left bite marks on her airboard, so it wasn't that well built after all.
08:04 And Vector wants to find out who hired the Rogues.
08:07 So he threatens to have Espio steal their airboard, and Jet says he doesn't know the name of who hired them.
08:12 I assume the story is still gonna reveal who hired them, and that it'll be someone we knew before, or this would be really unsatisfying.
08:20 Knuckles gets threatened by Storm and says he'll take him down any time.
08:24 So this is a rivalry against each other.
08:27 I can't help but be surprised by this though, because I feel like he's been more level-headed and not so much a hothead.
08:35 Somehow Jet tells him no, instead of not caring and just riding home on his airboard without him.
08:41 I guess he doesn't want him to get hurt.
08:43 And Wave says she has fixing to do.
08:46 I guess the real reason is she cares about him too, because this doesn't conflict with it.
08:51 It would be inconvenient being down one member.
08:54 Santa's mad at the story, refusing to show an actual fight between them.
08:58 One attempt at an attack on both sides is not a fight, especially not for seven pages.
09:06 When you have that little focus on action, you need substance more than ever.
09:10 How about telling me the history of this place?
09:13 Because I don't care about it yet.
09:16 I feel like it's a ghost town.
09:19 Vector asks for pay, and Knuckles says he could give him fruits and mushrooms.
09:24 And Espio says free groceries are savings.
09:27 It would have been interesting if Knuckles did have money, because then they'd have to come up with an excuse for why he does.
09:34 So of course that wasn't revealed.
09:36 Why would the government ever pay him a huge cash reward for helping to save the world?
09:41 The saving of the world in SD2 was broadcast on TV to tons of people,
09:45 and you'd think Sonic would have been interviewed and given Knuckles some credit,
09:49 but nope, he's an egomaniac, or the government only wants to reward Sonic.
09:54 Surprisingly, Vector wasn't aware that it wasn't just him who was invited to Vanilla's house.
10:00 You'd think she would have told him right away that she was inviting his friends too,
10:04 to make him look forward to seeing his friends.
10:07 Why does Knuckles call the Chaotix weirdos right now?
10:10 Sure, they have special powers and Charmy isn't being raised by his parents, but that's all.
10:16 Then Knuckles asks how he gets home, because that's how stupid he is in this canon.
10:21 Oh yeah, Knuckles has never gone back to Angel Island after leaving it in the entire history of the planet.
10:27 Yeah, because he never left the island in the Adventure Games or Heroes,
10:31 and he was never in Generations.
10:33 Or Lost World.
10:35 Or Frontiers.
10:37 How did the Adventure Games and Heroes even conclude their stories without Knuckles leaving the island?
10:42 They happened in IDW, right?
10:44 How did he come home after he left the island to be the leader of the Resistance?
10:48 Well, we saw it in the comic, so we definitely remember that.
10:52 Isn't it obvious he could get Tails to fly him home on his plane?
10:56 It's like he got brain damage so he can't remember the most important thing he needs to,
11:00 no matter how many times it happened.
11:02 Now I'm forced to assume that's what happened to him.
11:05 Jet contacts his boss, and Storm begins to say he told the Chaotix something, and it turns out he lied.
11:11 Jet doesn't deserve any compliments in-universe,
11:14 and Storm doesn't deserve any plight in the sim either.
11:17 Was it really necessary to show him complaints to his boss about this?
11:21 He says he plans to keep Knuckles distracted with the ropes and steal the relics again.
11:25 Wouldn't it be nice to see another opportunity for him to get his face punched in?
11:30 Instead, his boss, who talks in an off-puttingly formal way, says that he doesn't want the relics
11:36 because he only uses the ropes as a distraction for the Chaotix.
11:40 Finally, it really makes sense that he asks them to do all this.
11:43 You can't brag to people that you bought a relic you're not allowed to have.
11:47 You never know if they might call the cops.
11:49 Oh, of course it's clutch, because the writers are too lazy to come up with new villains most of the time,
11:53 until they feel like they're out of ideas for the moment.
11:56 And it really shows how similar the IDW villains are, because he talks just like Starline,
12:02 and he talks just like Mimic.
12:04 Why does Jet even care that he was used?
12:07 Of course he was used, he was trying to get his help.
12:10 And he's right in front of Joule, so it sure is a shame for her that none of her friends told her about clutch.
12:16 It could make sense that they didn't want to interrupt her important paperwork to warn her about someone she was unlikely to meet,
12:22 but no reason to inconvenience the resistance itself, because Amy, Shadow, and the Chaotix aren't a part of it somehow,
12:28 despite being playable characters.
12:30 Clutch makes a business agreement with Joule as the story ends.
12:34 I assume she just doesn't pay attention to any news because it's too depressing,
12:38 and that's why she didn't see his face on the news as someone who definitely would have been arrested for chow abuse,
12:44 and who had all of his possessions seized by the government, which must be for a crime.
12:49 I understand that being too boring to be reported on because it's not a violence-immediately-shocking crime.
12:54 But Cream would have told the cops about Clutch after rescuing Waffle's chow,
12:58 because if she really cared about them, she wouldn't want a chow abuser at large.
13:02 I'm just instinctively baffled at the idea that all of the heroes in the book
13:06 don't keep each other informed of anybody who makes a threatening enemy out of one of them.
13:10 They're too lazy to do that, even though it'd be so easy for bad guys to take advantage of this lack of information flow
13:17 and get back at them through their friends.
13:19 I guess they're just assuming that their enemies assume that they keep each other informed when they don't.
13:25 But their enemies are always confident, so of course they underestimate them.
13:30 I get her not thinking she needed to do a background check on him because he had the guts to approach her.
13:35 You'd think Belle would have warned her about him since she works in the same building and is a coward,
13:40 so she might have gotten afraid that he'd go here to get back at her,
13:44 and it'd only take a Google search for him to find out Belle works here.
13:48 This story was exhausting.
13:50 So, he wanted the Chaotix to wait for Restoration HQ so they couldn't warn Jewel about him, I guess.
13:56 Why else would he orchestrate this?
13:58 But the Chaotix aren't a part of this place anyways, so they have never come here.
14:03 Restoration is such a forgettable name that at first I called it the Resistance,
14:07 and then I called it Reformation.
14:10 In the next story, somehow General's wasting time having his hand on Tombl's face
14:15 instead of simply punching him to knock him out immediately with his metal fist,
14:19 and going on to knock out Ruff to instantly end this pathetically forced and unnecessary scene,
14:25 or for maximum enjoyment potential, just repeatedly punching them without knocking them out.
14:31 After a plot hole like this, I don't care about what happens in the fight anymore.
14:35 I know it's all unacceptable.
14:37 At least Cream isn't bothered in the next page.
14:41 But General doesn't deserve to be betrayed this disrespectfully.
14:44 With the artist depicting Cream hitting Tombl,
14:47 then why not show her fist impact to him at the very least?
14:51 Otherwise, I'm just getting nothing out of this.
14:53 Why wouldn't she just throw cheese at him like she did thousands of times?
14:58 So it couldn't be canon to the games if it's actually expecting us to believe she's opposed to throwing her chow at people.
15:04 Instead, she gets grabbed.
15:07 Combine that with the story being spiteful enough to have her dinner burned while she blames herself,
15:11 and it made some people wonder if the writers hate her.
15:15 Fans hate her for her voice, so why don't they say that?
15:19 Some flying chow humiliate Tombl by sending food at his head.
15:24 Ruff is knocked to the floor. I wish I knew why.
15:27 How did Cream get free?
15:30 Why would Ruff say he won't rob the place after all, but still plan to trash him?
15:35 He had free reign to rob it after he trashed him.
15:38 Somehow the next panel just has them standing there instead of fighting.
15:42 Cream gets the roast out, and it gets stepped on, which was blatantly unnecessary.
15:47 Maybe she shouldn't have taken it out of the oven.
15:50 Maybe she should have known to just turn the oven off and put it back in for safekeeping,
15:54 because this was bound to happen.
15:57 Especially since Tombl was hit by food.
16:00 Any time I hear Cream talk, I hate her too.
16:04 But that doesn't mean I find it satisfying to see bad stuff happen to her if it's insultingly forced.
16:10 You don't have to put up with hearing her dialogue when you're writing her for a comic.
16:15 And she's just a little girl, so I don't think I even want to see slaps against her.
16:20 And that's all I'd recommend writing if you want to punish her for having a bad voice.
16:24 But at that point, it'd be more tactful to not even use her at all.
16:28 This doesn't just spite Cream.
16:31 It spites Vanell and the Chaotix too.
16:34 And if the writer hates Vanell's voice in Sonic X, then I get hating her.
16:39 But why would you do this to Espio?
16:42 You hate the Chaotix that much it's worth it to screw good characters over?
16:46 Cream cries, and somehow the Heartless thugs don't take advantage of the distraction by hitting Gemeral,
16:52 who comforts her that it's good to remove the excess stress.
16:56 Cream says she did everything right.
16:59 No, she clearly made a mistake that got the roast ruined.
17:02 Why the hell are Ruff and Tumble intimidated by Vanell?
17:05 She's just being soft-spoken, and she looks harmless.
17:10 But somehow they agree with her.
17:12 Literally anybody would say that doesn't make any sense.
17:16 They're even more pathetic than scratching grounder.
17:20 They'd attack her and try to use her as a hostage too.
17:23 The only way I can make sense of this is to assume they were terrified of their mother,
17:28 but the writing is too lazy to explain that, or too uninspired to come up with it.
17:33 Vector arrives, apologizing for being late, as the Heartless thugs are ashamed into, I guess,
17:39 lying to her that they won't break the law anymore.
17:42 They take guts to actually keep true to that.
17:45 This also might be a mistake, because they've got the most creative potential if they'd break any law they can,
17:50 while the only other thing they'd do would be fighting robots, and that'd make them redundant.
17:55 If they keep being criminals, they could break into the homes of other heroes,
17:59 and maybe I'd get to see them get beaten up that time, giving the comic a reason to keep using them.
18:05 Asriel somehow expects me to believe the Chaotix are in no condition to fight.
18:09 They literally never even got attacked.
18:12 Vanilla reassures her and hugs her and holds her hand.
18:16 It turns out they had Chinese food, so at least that's relatable.
18:20 And for absolutely no reason, Ruff and Tumble get to have some.
18:25 Any normal person would've told them to get the fuck out and call the cops.
18:29 I understand her not doing the latter because she might think they'll go fight Eggman after this,
18:34 and she might think the heroes need all the help they can get against Eggman because he's got so many robots.
18:39 I don't think that'd make a difference. I think he'd have billions of robots.
18:43 How's it better than Ruff and Tumbler here?
18:46 The story shockingly ends with Tech saying that not only are the writers gonna actually remember to use Surgeon Kit again,
18:53 but they'll finally reach their potential as good guys. Without time.
18:57 This should've happened right after the arc was over. I'll hate if it's temporary.
19:02 It's baffling, and I take it with a grain of salt, but I'm sick of them as villains,
19:06 so I can look on the bright side with this.
19:09 Quite a while ago, I already got spoiled on the thugs overreacting to Vanell instead of beating her up,
19:14 and the plot point implied in the last few words.
19:17 And I have the same reaction to them that I did back then.
19:20 It's surprising and mind-boggling.
19:22 The latter would be like if the down-under Freedom Fighters let in a member of the Destructix as their new teammate
19:28 because apparently the heroes never warned them about him.
19:31 Even though Sally cared enough to get in contact with all the other countries' Freedom Fighters
19:35 and told them so much that she told them about plots that were irrelevant to them.
19:39 So no wonder the lack of information flow makes no sense in this comic.
19:43 If Amy is Sally, why didn't she do that?
19:46 Guess she's not Sally anymore.
19:48 The first story by Ian Flynn somehow managed to screw up the concept of Knuckles wanting to beat up the Babylon Rogues.
19:55 We didn't see a single time where Gen Storm got hit.
19:59 It was interesting to see the variety of things that happened to each member because they all split up.
20:04 But obviously Knuckles would've punched Jet before he'd get the chance to get airborne
20:09 because he would've run faster than that and he was almost right next to them.
20:14 If he was this slow in the games, he wouldn't have made it past the first loop-de-loop.
20:19 It's especially dumb since Espio probably used his super speed, so why didn't he beat up Storm?
20:26 If you're gonna be different from the games, you need to be so in a good way,
20:29 not in a way that's completely disrespectful to a beloved character.
20:33 And having it not be faithful in a bad way feels dishonest for a comic that advertises itself as being like the games.
20:40 Until it has a cover with just an OC on it.
20:43 I should need to explain that we would've wanted to see Gen Storm get hit a bunch of times because they're annoying.
20:49 And it turns out Clutch really did hire them, which was the most lazy, predictable twist of all.
20:55 Why is this supposed to make him look smart?
20:57 As the only possible excuse for using him for this.
21:01 I'm not even sure why he did it.
21:03 It would've made more sense if it had been because he wanted to stare at the relics in his house because he did like antiques.
21:10 When do the Chaotix and Knuckles ever visit Restoration HQ?
21:14 The Chaotix are always busy with their job in another city,
21:17 and Knuckles is an antisocial who feels obligated to San Angel Island, and this place has nothing to do with him.
21:23 At least the twist makes sense, but what would also make sense is a different villain.
21:29 The second story by Evan Sandley continues the nonsense where Gemmell doesn't instantly knock out people,
21:35 despite having the perfect opportunity to punch them out right away, and being as fast as Sonic.
21:40 It would've only been a good story if we saw him constantly punch them the entire time, until Vanell got home.
21:48 But it said it would rather focus on torturing Cream.
21:52 It continues being cruel to Cream, which I can't help but see as bafflingly mean-spirited because she's a little girl.
21:59 I get hating her voice, but I don't know if most Sonic fans would smirk at any suffering she goes through,
22:05 especially not in a comic where you can't hear her voice.
22:09 And somehow Vanell intimidates some burglars into saying they'll be good, while barely putting any satisfying effort into it.
22:16 At least she would threaten them with a frying pan. That'd be cool.
22:21 It'd be surprising for her, but justified to protect her home.
22:25 And isn't the series meant to be cool?
22:28 This could've been brilliant if it'd immediately explained as soon as she came back that Ruff and Tomble had a disciplinary mother that she's reminding them of.
22:36 That would also subtly explain why they're criminals, because since they're not the type of people that can properly handle that kind of parent,
22:42 they ran away from her and became criminals because they dropped out of high school,
22:46 so the only ones who'd hire them would hire them for jobs they'd hate, which they knew.
22:51 And it explains why they stuck around to eat Chinese food, other than them just wanting to mooch off her,
22:57 because they'd want to bond with someone who reminds them of their mother,
23:01 because some people still have attachments to their abusive parents.
23:05 Instead it's jarring because they only act like this because of a distracting meta-reason that they're meant to be seen as comedy villains,
23:11 who stick out like a sore thumb in a comic that always takes itself seriously in the conflict.
23:16 So this whole issue is just disrespectful to characters that deserved better, and to the source material as the entire excuse for its plots.
23:24 And I don't love looking at the art enough to not notice that.
23:28 A lot of other franchises have good-looking art styles, but that doesn't make it impossible for people to find some of their plots bad.
23:35 Like The Great Divide in Avatar.
23:38 So I don't understand why that's different in Sonic.
23:41 I say this because the art is the only thing in the story that's worthy of great praise.
23:48 Even the worst plots in the games didn't ignore the abilities of its main characters to make them lame enough that they could happen.
23:55 Even they weren't disrespectful.
23:59 I feel like if people really cared about Knuckles and Jemml and Cream, they would think they deserved better than this.