So... what was THAT about? (IDW Sonic Racing: Crossworlds one-shot)
Hello,
surprisingly, ILO here. This will be my first post ever on the blog, and I'll debut talking about IDW Sonic's brand new product: the Sonic Racing Crossworlds stand alone comic.
I'll immediately preface by saying: this won't strictly revolve around the content of the comic itself, but also the circumstances that surround it. Gemlik already spoke about the complete sauce in her latest entry, so you should check her rant out if that's what you want.
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However, I'd still like to share briefly what i think, and in my opinion...
it's solid!
This was nothing mind boggling, but definitely a chill, and at times fun, read. I caught myself giggling a bunch, and i think that overall the Babylon Rogues felt mostly like themselves, FINALLY after going through some absolutely abysmal character assassination AND flanderization. Thought, at times they're still shown with those exaggerated faces which i really despise, but the comic is more silly than serious, so i'll close an eye this time.
Wave isn't an anxious momma anymore and is instead her witty and snarky self again, engaging in fun rivarly with Rouge. Diva vs Diva, yay!
Jet is being competitive and hot-headed as ever, but without that annoying side of ''i have huge anxious attachment issues towards Sonic and will die if i don't interact with him, GRRR he's mine!'' like they wanted the readers to believe in the preview (pin this, it will come back later), and this time he surprisingly tossed the hedgehog to the side in favor of Shadow, which is new.
Storm... he's just trying is best, and we love him for that.
I really like this panel of them. Not only is it very well drawn (the art in general is fine, but in my opinion it got great starting from the second half and so on), but it's a sweet breeze that reminded me that they actually are friends and not just random colleagues who just so happen to work together.
Yes, Jet, that wasn't worthy enough for you AND your pals. Drag 'em out with you.
Final rating: 8/10, just looking at the final product.
Now, with that out of the way...
Do you remember when five seconds ago i said to pin that ''like they wanted the readers to believe in the preview''? I want to talk about that.
What the hell was that about? The final product is absolutely NOTHING like the preview.
The writing in those first pages seemed to be the beginning of the usual dreadful and biased writing IDW is known for. The difference between those and the comic in its entirety is actually really jarring.
Wave was pictures as this ''why am i doing this'' type of character once again, totally bored and annoyed by the situation, despite the fact that the narration implied that in the invitation letter some ''incredible technology'' was mentioned.
In Sonic Riders SHE was the one who insisted upon continuing the Grand Prix even after finding out from Eggman's diary that the treasure of the Babylonians was no gem, but rather advanced technology. She would've been STOKED to hear that in this competition there would be interesting machinery, and she expressed awe for that in Crossworlds too, even defending Donpa's vehicles and Donpa himself.
first off, in Sonic Riders you had the brilliant idea to secure victory by BLOWING UP Sonic, you ain't normal. Second, bitch if you're so unamused just leave!! This was SO annoying to read. I love my purple queen but when i saw this i audibly said ''oh my god SHUT UP''.
Jet appeared as this obsessive, desperate freak once again, and it even felt more embarassing than usual as it seemed to become part of some delusional (on his part) toxic yaoi triangle with him, Sonic and Shadow, a triangle whose purpose was to, let's be honest, glaze Shadow for the billionth time as Sonic totally snobbed the hawk for the former, and he was actually shown going after Shadow for stealing Sonic's attention, which is... oh my god
Like dude what the actual HELL are you doing chasing like that?? At this point just move on and go find a boyfriend or something. (Also, here we go with the corny exaggerated facial expressions i was talking about earlier.)
This is OOC for Sonic, too. It's well established that Jet is one of the really few who ACTUALLY gets under Sonic's skin, and manages to make him legitimately mad. In Sonic Riders, he was so pissed off by Jet rubbing salt to the wound after losing the race that he grinned his teeth and proceeded to angrily punch the ground. Jet knows well how to grab Sonic's attention, and he knows he will be successful in that. It's fine if he sometimes gets outshined, but that look of total unamusement on Sonic's part was complete BS.
I won't go any further with this, but i'll just say this was so bad it caused a total riot on Twitter/X (which i'll talk about in a minute).
Storm was just there, as usual. If he was gone nothing would've changed. That was the vibe those pages were giving off for him.
Not only the Rogues, but personally everyone seemed kind of... off. Rouge was as flat as ever, Shadow was just being his good ol' edgelord self but now just passively waiting for Sonic to lick his ass, and Knux was tossed to the side again to... help Big find Froggy, yeah ok. All the others were kind of whatever, doing their usual schtick or just standing in the corner.
''Aren't you being too pretentious? It was three pages, not much can happen.''
That's true, and yes i might am being a bit too pretentious, but my issue with all this it's not the amount of things taking place in there; afterall, it fulfilled its basic premise: let the readers know what is about go down in the story. Mundane or not, it did that. My main issue, and the reason why i wanted to make this essay, is regarding the whole deal stemmed from Jet's writing.
I get what they were trying to do.
The writers behind this comic wanted to readily hook the readers with something which, at first, seemed really out of pocket or else directly teased a very active group of fans such as shippers, to get them intrigued in a way or the other and have them want to read the comic. This is not the first time they try and grab people's attention with something of this caliber. Some years ago one panel from the IDW comics, in which Shadow was holding Sonic while running, went pretty viral online among IDW fans. Also, the writers for IDW are fans as well and are active online; the know how the fans are.
Sounds good, right? Well, the point here is that Babylon Rogues fans are absolutely FED UP of IDW.
That massive outrage that sparked because of these previews didn't come from nothing. Babylon Rogues fans have been frustrated by IDW's treatment of the Rogues for a LONG time.
Hell, this whole blog has plenty of examples that show just how badly the three Stooges were treated.
They are constantly mischaracterized, mistreated and used as stools to elevate other characters and make them look better, meanwhile they're left looking like complete idiots. And when it's their perfect chance to shine? Whoops! Let's add someone else to the mix and make them steal the Rogues' spotlight!
Yes, even some other characters have suffered from bad writing, but IDW really made it look like they had a very strong agenda against them, and it's so unfair that meanwhile everyone gets at least ONE little moment of glory, they always come out from the mud with NOTHING on their hands if not SHIT.
And everything led to this riot against the comic. The writers thought they were being silly, meanwhile the Rogues fans, and especially Jet's, saw that and went ''absolutely NO way they're doing this AGAIN.'', and i don't blame them ONE bit. I got really mad, too, and personally saw this as kind of treating Sonic Riders fans as idiots.
You KNOW you've been writing them like trash for so long; what makes you think that, after many hoped for something of significance for the Riders series as they used the hell out of Jet to promote Crossworlds, implying that he would return to be treated like a mop to clean the floor in the comic, for the game where he was extensively used for advertisement, would be a GOOD IDEA?
Even after the final product turned out to be fine, that criticism was 100% deserved. IDW needs to do MUCH better with the Rogues if they want their fans' trust, and this is NOT it.
Again, i get their idea, but they pushed it onto the wrong fans and way too late.
And honestly for me it was the final straw. That and the reaction of some of the people who work for Sonic IDW.
So now you resort to baiting? You're not getting a single cent out of me until i see a proper story where they are well written and the focus. Full stop.
So, what is the rating with all of this in mind? 3/10.
Well, this brings the rant to an ending. I hope this wasn't a boring read and my points were comprehensible: this post turned out to be longer than i had anticipated. I apologize also for eventual grammar/syntax errors.
That's it. See ya.
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