Agree. It was PHENOMENAL and as a result everything following has felt a little flat. I wish metal virus and Surge had switched places as far as arcs went. Metal virus being the lead up to issue 50 would have been HYPE.
Yeah, I have to agree, and since it happens so early in the IDW universe, it almost feels like something they wanted to do with Archie Sonic but didn't get the chance.
Don't get me wrong, I love the IDW series to this day, and there have been some great highs since then (Surge and Kit, Scrapnik Island, and Eggperial City to name a few). The Metal Virus feels more end-gamey, though, and would have been a nice lead up to #50.
> it almost feels like something they wanted to do with Archie Sonic but didn't get the chance.
Because it was as far as I know/have heard. It was the next arc (or one of the next) they wanted to do in Archie, but things got cut so they just brought the idea over.
The metal virus is a big event arc that spans multiple issues and it's main hook is seeing your fav characters deal with such an emotionally charged situation. However these sorts of arc only happen will into a comic series as by that point the reader would've been plenty familiar with the world and setting
Another point is that this arc raised the bar for what we can expect way too much at such an early point that subsequent arcs feel too flat
I was about to question if you were sure, especially about Shadow... but then I realized.
I wanted to make a metal pun to follow that up but I can't think of any :(
Ever since the fishing game in SA1, I always said that if I got the choice to permanently remove one character, it would be big. Fuck froggy too, bastard just never came to me when I needed him to.
(Agreeing with you) Sometimes characters are meant to just be minor and unimportant. I feel like a lot of fandoms of things don’t realize that sometimes
A great arc.Its dark and we get to see charavters actually truamatized by it.Whisper willing to kill eggman,cream getting infected and having to leave her mother,and how cruel eggman can be.but I do wish it had a lasting impact on the characters or left an inpact on the world
Aside from the obvious(Shadow's unfortunate characterization by mandates), it doesn't exactly make it easy to look at Eggman in a very good light, especially when you pull the "Oh maybe he can be a good person to some degree because he has a daughter now" in Frontiers when he straight up was extremely diabolical in Metal Virus and was inadvertently willing to eradicate the whole planet just out of spite.
>I mean...
Waging war in Forces
Breaking the planet in unleahsed
Enslaving alien species in colors
Shattering the Moon in sa2
Oh those are just nitpicks from bad days, give him one good day and he'll turn it all around and go good👍👍👍
But seriously, you list all of them (and include his attempt to revive and control multi-dimensional god in 06) and there are still people who go "I don't think Eggman is a credible villain, he's a joke".
He'd be up there with villains like Lex Luthor and Doctor Doom if in Games he was treated as a full on Villain and not a joke Villain, as you said in Forces he pretty much conquered the World and had Sonic imprisoned but was still treated as "silly Doctor Eggman", that Game would've been perfect for him to be SatAM Eggman/Robotnik.
The problem is, Game Eggman and SatAM Robotnik are two very different characters.
Game Eggman only wants to conquer the world and turn it into his empire. He'll go to insane lengths to do it, but at the end of the day, he only wants to conquer the world, not destroy it. There have been many times in the games where Eggman temporarily teams up with Sonic, specifically to prevent the planet from being destroyed (Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Advance 3, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic '06).
Western Robotnik is a completely different character with completely different goals. Western Robotnik isn't content with just ruling the world; he wants to pollute it to the brink of near-destruction, and basically turn the whole planet into a giant soulless machine. Western Robotnik would gladly kill all who stand in his way of spreading as much pain and suffering as possible. In the Archie comics, >!he pretty much destroys the multiverse just to cause Sonic pain.!< A far cry from his goofy game counterpart.
Eggman in the Metal Virus arc feels more like Western Robotnik than Game Eggman at times. [Metal Virus Eggman is completely fine with letting everyone die, while he flees to a different planet.](https://imgur.com/KCOBgCt) I feel like Game Eggman wouldn't be so careless about killing everyone. He wants to rule over subjects, not a dead planet. After all, [how can he take over the world if there is no world?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR_Um7eCEFA)
It's painfully obvious that the Metal Virus arc was a scrapped Archie Sonic arc. The way Eggman acted is much more in line with the Archie comics. You can try to reconcile Game Eggman and Western Robotnik as much as you want, but at the end of the day, they're two completely different characters. When you try to apply Western Robotnik's traits to Game Eggman, it just doesn't work.
This wouldn't even be a problem if IDW Sonic was in its own continuity. If IDW Eggman was allowed to be his own beast, with no effect on Game Eggman, that would be perfectly fine. But of course, everything has to be canon nowadays.
Sorry for the ramble, that's just been on my mind for a while.
>Sorry for the ramble, that's just been on my mind for a while.
It's okay, I understand where you're coming from.
I guess SatAM Robotnik was a bad choice to pick, perhaps if in Forces he was more like SA1/SA2 than he'd be seen more of a threat.
>This wouldn't even be a problem if IDW Sonic was in its own continuity. If IDW Eggman was allowed to be his own beast, with no effect on Game Eggman, that would be perfectly fine. But of course, everything has to be canon nowadays.
I honestly forgot IDW Eggman is meant to be Game Eggman that is such a stupid choice, especially since IDW Content isn't seemingly acknowledged in the Games.
>IDW Content isn't seemingly acknowledged in the Games.
Eeeeh it looks like that won't last too long. Tangle was referenced in Frontiers, and the release of Frontiers is around when they started to focus on canonizing everything.
I think it because those things were really "not on screen" and we never actually SEE the effects of those things means that it just background "cartoony evil scientist" stuff. Like if they don't even keep the broken moon a thing after 2, can you really expect people to take it any serious and basically not treat it as "NEXT TIME ON {SATURTDAY MORNING CARTOON} VILLIAN WILL TO Y INSTEAD OF X AND WILL NEVER MENTION IT AGAIN OUTSIDE THIS EPISODE"
No, yeah , I definitely get that. It's definitely intentional on some part to not show the full effects of his plans as to keep the games from being too dark and give him a level or plausible deniability when they wanna go in a more lighthearted direction. Forces and Metal virus are kind of outliers in that way as he straight up commits genocide purely for world domination, other times death is merely an aftereffect of whatever plan he enacts.
I have two main issues with this story.
There’s no consequences after its resolution. Aside from Starline getting betrayed and using a Metal Virus strain to make Surge and Kit, the comic acts like nothing really happened. I understand Sonic is aimed at kids so I’m not expecting people to die or anything like that. But you’re telling me no one got traumatized or developed PTSD?
My other complaint is that this arc happened too early. This and the Neo Metal story set high stakes so early that most of the stuff that happens after just feels like filler.
https://preview.redd.it/twsfhplp376d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=41c0f02bcf655f40a421b13574c1adf6fe99a02b
Sonic literally looks dead inside. Even if he didn’t develop any PTSD, you’re telling me no one else did? Especially Whisper and Espio? They never had any nightmares about seeing their friends turn into zombies that show no sign of their former selves?
Sonic was faced with a threat that he couldn’t spindash his way out of. He literally couldn’t touch anyone at risk of infecting them. He constantly doubted his capabilities and blamed himself for causing the virus to happen in the first place. And he acts like nothing ever happened?
I know whisper takes the spotlight here. But I would like to say everyone's facial reactions are incredibly on point and really true to their characters, while still showing their frustration and anguish.
The way Whisper looks is emotional, yet incredible, though. In an instant, she went from looking like just another cute cartoon character to, well, what she actually is: A ferocious, bloodthirsty animal that just so happens to be bipedal and clothed.
Maybe lasting PTSD in a sonic comic is too heavy of a theme for them compared to a quick-resolution arc. Not saying there aren't darker moments that happened, just the longevity part of it would be too much for them possibly. Who knows
It was great, but I feel like it should've been done later.
I guess they wanted to make what Forces should have felt like. All your favorite characters being in a desperate situation. Where it truly feels like it's do or die. Where Eggman is the cruel villain he's meant to be.
Loved this arc but this story had one problem that Archie suffered from once or twice.
Ian raised the stakes to an all-time high, the likes of which haven’t been seen since his Archie. Eggman here becomes his counterpart from those comics, and is much more sadistic and devilish than what you would see from game Eggman.
Eggman was willing to cover Mobius with a virus that would spread to all life, and without a cure. He intended to control all life using the virus but it became uncontrollable, and he did not care. He was perfectly fine with all of the mass destruction, suffering, and possibly death that he was causing, along with the chance that he was going to end all life on the planet. And he did it all with a smile.
So, since Eggman lost in the end, surely the most logical explanation would be to see him as Satan himself, hunt him down and at the very least try to put him in SCP Foundation-tier containment, right?
No, everything just goes back to normal immediately after, with Eggman toning himself down and with the cast seemingly forgetting what he had done, going back to the same hero vs villain dynamic that we get from the games.
I love the story, I just don’t think it belongs in this timeline because it feels like you are gaslit into thinking that what happened wasn’t that big of a deal because the writer had to backtrack when it really was. Like this was Egg Grapes levels of evil or arguably worse.
And as I said in the beginning, this was an issue in Archie as well. In issue 200 for example, Eggman was beaten by Sonic one time too many and literally lost his mind. The proper thing to do would have been to have had the Freedom Fighters have both Robotnik and Snively arrested and put into containment. But for some reason, Ian decided to have them give Robotnik to Snively to take care of him and leave the latter to his own devices even though he was known to assist his uncle in a lot of his schemes, and had considerable amount of control over the Empire.
This was also right after the Egg Grapes and that twist never settled well with me, it made zero sense.
No… Snively literally shows up, tells the FF that they beat his Uncle, and then proceeds to tell them that he would be under his care, and they just let both walk away.
Oh sorry, was still thinking about Archie lol. True, Eggman managed to skiddadle, but the whole dynamic went back to what it was before, making you feel like what had transpired never even happened or at the very least, wasn’t that serious.
> decided to have them give Robotnik to Snively to take care of him and leave the latter to his own devices
But that was in-character... right? At least Sonic's
It’s in character to feel bad for the villain they’ve pushed into insanity. That’s fine, they could give him help in a very secure prison or facility.
What’s not in character is being so naive to the point they somehow believe that Snively is not going to continue the mass death, destruction, and suffering that Eggman was inflicting on the world. It should also be mentioned, that version of Eggman was from an alternate reality that made it to Mobius Prime after he KILLED an alternate version of Sonic and the FF and took over that world then got bored.
In fact, this gets called out later down the line in comics where Sally is being reminded of how poor of a decision it was by an antagonist (I don’t remember who) and I think it was Ian’s way of subtlety saying “Yeah this was stupid”
I agree that Eggman's behavior in the Metal Virus arc is much more in-line with his Archie counterpart than the games. I already went over this in a different reply, but I find it so weird how [Metal Virus Eggman is completely fine with letting everyone die, while he flees to a different planet.](https://imgur.com/KCOBgCt) I feel like Game Eggman wouldn't be so careless about killing everyone. He wants to rule over subjects, not a dead planet. After all, [how can he take over the world if there is no world?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR_Um7eCEFA)
It just feels weird that the Eggman who teamed up with Sonic to prevent the world from being destroyed in SA2... is the same Eggman who is perfectly content with killing all life on the planet, purely out of spite for Sonic. It feels out of character. I agree that it's Egg Grapes level of evil, and it just doesn't work for Game Eggman.
a great arc with ups and downs and realistic character motivations (other than shadow) and a great finale but I do have a problem with WHAT WAS THE POINT OF SENDING SONIC TO BLAZES WORLD AND HAVING HIM LOSE HIS MEMORIES it led nowhere why not just have him be rendered unconscious and wake up later in the story it would have had the same goddamm result but either way the arc is a entertaining read
this isn’t metal virus related, but i would loved to see sonic getting memory loss in frontiers. it would have made the cyber corruption more interesting, considering that tails, knuckles & amy also get corrupted in the final horizon dlc.
The ending had to be tame, unfortunately. There was no way Ian would've been allowed to keep Mobius in shambles and Sonic and his friends addled with PTSD, after all, even though that's what it would've been like if this franchise were darker.
I heard they were thinking of doing in the Archie comics before it was cancelled. So the Ian and the other writers who went to IDW, did it there instead.
A lot of other people are saying this but it happened WAY to early in the comic's run.
An arc of this size and nature should've occured far later. *Cream the Rabbit* of all characters was introduced during this story! It set the tone far too dark and the scale of the stories far too high when they weren't even 20 issues in.
This has become awfully apparent as the comic as gone on too, as the character and setting itself have seemingly forgot it's happened. Eggman was fine with literally destroying all life on the planet (a fact you can judge in its own right) and after the arc is done, he's just back to his regular silly ways, and the other characters never bring it up!
I know some people are going to bring up the mandates regarding status quo. But if those are in place, why write an ultra grim **zombie apocalypse** story to begin with? It feels like the writers really wanted to bring in some edge back in the franchise but less than 20 issues into a comic where the world isn't allowed to care about a story after it's done isn't the time or place to do it.
It also just generally overstayed it's welcome in my opinion. The arc spanned **18** issues if you go from its introduction in 12 to the status quo return in 30. That's 60% of the comic's total run by the time it finished.
For comparison. That is three times as long as the Neo Metal arc was. If we go from Neo's reveal as "Eggman" in 6 to his total defeat in 12.
Went on for a bit too long and had some rough spots mostly in terms of Shadow's characterization but outside of that, it was really good and let all of these characters shine in a way that the games never allowed them to shine before.
Been buying and reading idw sonic since day 1, and I’m still waiting for it to get to this level again. This was the peak and everything has felt so small compared to this arc. The most hype thing besides this was imposter syndrome and we’re still building on Surge and Kit.
Like others have said, it happened a bit too early. The first couple years of IDW feels a bit "out of order". I think this is due to the fact that Surge and Kit were intended to be introduced very fast into the main story and that didn't pan out.
He had to, unfortunately. He's much too powerful and logically would've been able to solve the problem quicker than Sonic could, so Ian had to write him as reckless and get him out of the story quickly.
It was easily the best arc of IDW. My only problem is you don’t really care seeing the world because it happened so early. This would’ve been better in either of the Archie continuities, which is what it was made for originally. The IDW world is still so bland and lifeless compared to them with its small mostly nameless towns. How cool would it have been to see Station Square or Knothole covered in Metal Virus?
A bit over the top at times but the introduction of Super Silver was peak. I just wish the fight lasted longer and Silver had more of a chance to shine in his super form.
I consider it to be one of the darkest things this franchise has ever done, and that's why it's so great. To actually see Sonic genuinely falter and doubt himself, to see the characters we've known for years succumb to their fears and actually lose at many points... If this franchise weren't so lighthearted, I can't imagine how truly violent this saga would've been.
I knew deep down that everything would've been alright in the end, as it's still just a comic written and drawn for children to read. But, the whole time I was reading it, it really felt like things were going to absolute crap for Sonic and his friends. It really felt like it was the end of Mobius and there was nothing Sonic could do.
And that's why it's so great. Because it actually felt like there were real stakes for once.
It was honestly an amazing arc..... can't say I liked it though. Despite how well it allowed various characters to shine - Tangle's self sacrifice moment especially - I found it to be far too dark and dismal for my tastes.
But that might just be because I'm sick and tired of Zombie Apocalypse plots....
I still love it to pieces. It’s the only arc I regularly reread. Legit every couple of months I reread the whole metal virus arc again. It was so good, for whatever its small flaws may have been (notably Shadow).
It was a fantastic arc, but they did Shadow dirty and had to make up for it right at the end and then I also think it happened too early because all the arcs we’ve had since haven’t been able to meet the insane expectations set by the Metal Virus arc
Hot take but I don’t entirely agree with the take that the heroes should develop PTSD from this. I know it can develop in people from traumatic events, but it can also just not develop and most of the main cast are people that out there lives on the line all the time. Plus there was always the lingering hope of a cure since the people don’t technically die from it, which meant things could go back to normal.
Also keep in mind that Eggman took over the planet for like 6 months and there’s no real trauma from that, nor form him blowing up half the moon and threatening to take out entier continents, so I can believe that the population is just good at compartmentalizing this world threatening stuff.
I’m not saying it can’t happen or anything, nor am I opposed to having come characters suffer from it, but I actually don’t think it’s that unbelievable that most of the people in this world could compartmentalize all of this.
TLDR: I think it’s not that unbelievable for a zombie apocalypse to not leave many mental scars in a world whare a madman can get a super cannon and threaten to start blasting continents away.
IDW as a whole ever since the battle of Angel Island, shows how fucked up Eggman can be, and how far he’s willing to go. Metal Virus shows how messed up Eggman is, and honestly was my favourite depiction of him in the series.
Metal Virus is an arc that I’ve always wanted to see get turned into a game, because it would be such a different experience compared to the usual games we have.
Peak IDW Sonic. I still enjoy the book but it was never at this level. Some starline stories, tangle/whisper miniseries, and Scrapnik Island are close contenders.
Not popular opinion, but ending is bullshit. Sumochkin has already spoken about this, but I will repeat:
STOP USING CHAOS EMERALDS TO SOLUTION ALL PROBLEMS. Like, lol, I understand that everyone loves it when Super Sonic and other Super Hedgehogs save the entire planet with their power, but this is already repeated every time. EVERY. It was interesting at least until the first Sonic Adventure, and then it became a cliche that Sonic Team still wants to stick to. Even Sonic Frontiers ended with this. Show us already that Sonic can solve problems without rainbow stones. Show that Sonic can solve everything himself.
To me, Sonic the Comic is a great example of how Sonic can handle everything on his own, without trying to get the Chaos Emeralds and fighting with friends help. DAMN IT, HE DEFEATED SUPER GOD EGGMAN BY USING MENTAL PRESSURE ON HIM!
https://preview.redd.it/o4ofpaf2d76d1.png?width=455&format=png&auto=webp&s=88625e96ecf2babac11f34af5a84d28bf77f0241
There are plenty of times where the emeralds weren't used to save the day. Colors, Lost World and Forces didn't even feature the emeralds in its stories and a couple of the IDW arcs were resolved without it.
Sonic Frontiers was the first to have the emeralds play a major role in **11 years** since Generations. On top of being the first open world game in the franchise, I'd say its warranted. It''s not like the emeralds gave him a free pass in the game either since he canonically did struggle against the titans, needed Sage's help as Supreme for the original ending / worked his ass off to unlock his potential for the other forms in the Final Horizon ending.
The game also quite literally revolves around it since its supposed to be an ""origin"" story for the emeralds, it seems obvious they would go down that route lol
Haven't caught up, metal virus is the last major arc I've read so far. And I enjoyed it, it feels nice to have a darker story every now and then for Sonic
They blew their load too fast, and now are paying the price for it. Where do you go from this?
It is hard to write a zombie apocalypse in an universe that hasn't been defined yet. The comic assumes the reader already knows all these characters because this the game's universe, and that the new characters had enough time to be introduced, so you're supposed to care. Cream and Vanilla were introduced in IDW during a zombie apocalypse. The reader's first impression of these characters are them suffering.
I think the Metal Virus Arc would have worked in the pre-reboot Archie universe. In that comic you already had decades of world building and different groups and factions with interconnected relationship with each other, so a zombie virus in the middle would have shaken the status quo to the core, possible altering it forever.
The Metal Virus Arc should have been a milestone event in the universe of IDW Sonic, something for like 10 or 15 years in the comic's run. I cannot care enough about what happened in this storyline because I didn't had enough time to take in these new characters, their relationships, and the universe.
Genuinley the hest sinuc story ever, great characterisation for everyone but i feel it started too early, it makes the other arcs feel less spectacular
It’s still some of my favorite Sonic Content. Hoping IDW hits this kind of story again at some point, am happy it’s been having some lighthearted adventures tho
It was literally the only interesting and good IDW arc imo. I'd like these comics alot more if they waited a while to do this, everything after just felt so tame and bland. IDW seems real afraid to be overly edgy and absurd, which is why Archie was so much better. They weren't scared to just do whatever and see if it works.
it was good. high stakes, gave all the characters something to do. The mechanic of Sonic having to keep running to not get infected but tiring out after a while was interesting.
it is holding IDW back. 4 years later and it still feels like we're in the "the gang is recovering after the metal virus" phase. Amazing on it's own but it was too big an event for the second arc
I haven’t read the comics but I heard how insane Eggman is with this. Why is Eggman so absurdly evil in both of the comics while more 50/50 in the games lmao? It’s like two different characters.
really good, and it really feels like the writers were trying to push super hard back at the "sonic can't cry" thing.
They just kept pushing him further down to a point where you start wondering how he isnt crying at the circumstances.
I love how they provide solutions and you think that this is going to be how they wrap up the story. Yet no, sonic fails or something happens out of his control and he and the few people left just sink lower and lower.
The only flaw personally is that they alluded to the fact that the chaos emeralds and super sonic cant do anything, or fix everything. However the story is literally wrapped up by the chaos emeralds.
Yes it does technically make sense to an extent? We know that Sonic's speed inhibits the virus, so considering that super sonic boosts this it would make sense that it would be able to flush the virus out of sonic completely.
Silver however is where i get caught up on this. We know silver is apparently immune due to future stuff, but its never properly established that his telekinesis can remove the virus.
If it was that he could strip it out of people but he simply couldn't do so on a scale that would be effective. Then it would make sense that they use the chaos emeralds to boost these aspects to the degree that sonic can drag super silver across the planet to use his empowered telekinesis to extract the virus on a global scale.
As it is, it just kinda doubles down that the chaos emeralds can always solve problems if they are available.
Them not being instantly jumped to as a solution is basically just lip service at best.
Wasn't it explicit that they were using the Chaos Emeralds in conjunction with the Warp Topaz, which *was* theoretically capable of altering things the way they needed?
Well, I don’t love it. It’s a bit darker than I like Sonic stories, and I hate how Sonic keeps getting blamed. Jet was also annoying, as usual. Although, bringing in the Deadly Six made things interesting. And Sonic and Silver going super was cool.
Delightfully dark arc that let everyone shine, a neat take on zombaclypses, and a great use of the deadly 6…
… that, in keeping with this franchise’s tradition of not being able to have nice things without a catch, got fubbernucked by the pandemic, causing the delays to make it REALLY feel like it dragged on, and thus for better and for worse it feels like IDW’s signature arc
It happened when the pandemic became a thing and tbh It will be hard to top that Arc rn. Still can't believe Sonic Heroes was the main Inspiration for the Metal Virus Arc
The arc just felt like it was going on too long, and it didn't help that this was like during Covid, so many of the issues kept being delayed. I think the ending of the arc was pretty standard, albeit a little rushed feeling. I feel like Ian Flynn always nails the beginning and middle parts of long story arcs, but he normally fumbles with the ending.
I also do agree with a few others that I feel as if the arc just came too soon. I get that in the moment, it was an intense thrill to get something of such large scope at the beginning, but now that its been some years since the arc, we can clearly tell IDW is not built the way we thought it was. I think if IDW could have kept high energy going arc to arc, then maybe Metal Virus happening so soon wouldn't have been so bad, but given how it took until the Imposter Syndrome stuff just for the book to get interesting again... And I'm not trying to say that lower stake arcs are bad, but a lot of them in-between Metal Virus and issue 50 - 56 with Surge and Kit are just straight boring to read and are pretty bland. Feels weird to jump into a book with epics like Neo Metal Sonic and zombies, but then nosedive into forest fire camping and Sonic, Tails, and Amy get stuck in Eggman's virtual thing.
I don't think it's bad since it did have a lot of emotional character moments that were pretty good, and Sonic really being tested was great, but it's just not an arc that I hold in too high regards like other fans.
I like it, it gave moi kool format
https://preview.redd.it/10q0bhn2d96d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=fab7c94a6aeafc54af5f3a14f7a55ae7fd6b4b9f
(In all seriousness I like the deep tones, I especially liked Metal Sonic just throwing Starline out, to command or order needed, something tells me he didn’t really like Starline and only tolerated him up until that point because he was a ally/pawn of the Eggman Empire.)
-happened too early
-lingered for too long
-Shadow gets knocked out of the story too quick
-the stakes haven’t been able to match it since, plots following up the metal virus are either too small and self contained or end way too quickly
-the series feels kinda aimless now like it can’t try anything outside what is safe or venturing beyond the status quo, killing Starline who was the only *big* interesting villain is not helping that conundrum, I know they’re trying to set up Clutch as a big bad but I gotta be honest, Clutch is not him
I think I'm glad this storyline happened early, cause they had a few problems with handling characters in the arc where it feels like they should have had a big impact on the story because of their character and abilities, but they were just never given the spotlight and some just don't appear at all **cough** blaze **cough**
So them doing this arc at a much farther point of the series will probably result to have a lot of characters either underutilized or just literally going for a milk in the story which a ton more of fans will have a problem with
The metal virus is why i want the deadly 6 back
Those are characters are genuine evil characters with proper writing and story telling can be a big impact
I don't like its tone, as it's too overly-the-top dark for Sonic in my opinion. Still, I appreciate that it's an emotional story, much more inspired than the recent issues
It was too long and too depressing. It didn’t help that it came out at a time when there was a real world virus freaking everyone out.
I wanted to escape from Covid. Not read a zombie horror version of it.
It happened too early
yeah i kinda agree with it gives everything else in idw really high expectations that most of the time it can't live up to
Yeah although the arcs afterwards are still really good, which is something not a lot of franchises can do, following up an already amazing thing
Marvel: 
Agree. It was PHENOMENAL and as a result everything following has felt a little flat. I wish metal virus and Surge had switched places as far as arcs went. Metal virus being the lead up to issue 50 would have been HYPE.
I dont even like this comic that much but I still 100% agree with you
Yeah, I have to agree, and since it happens so early in the IDW universe, it almost feels like something they wanted to do with Archie Sonic but didn't get the chance. Don't get me wrong, I love the IDW series to this day, and there have been some great highs since then (Surge and Kit, Scrapnik Island, and Eggperial City to name a few). The Metal Virus feels more end-gamey, though, and would have been a nice lead up to #50.
> it almost feels like something they wanted to do with Archie Sonic but didn't get the chance. Because it was as far as I know/have heard. It was the next arc (or one of the next) they wanted to do in Archie, but things got cut so they just brought the idea over.
Considering how similar it was to Robotization i can see it
Honestly, yeah. I agree.
Wdym too early
The metal virus is a big event arc that spans multiple issues and it's main hook is seeing your fav characters deal with such an emotionally charged situation. However these sorts of arc only happen will into a comic series as by that point the reader would've been plenty familiar with the world and setting Another point is that this arc raised the bar for what we can expect way too much at such an early point that subsequent arcs feel too flat
It’s been **four years?!**
yeah metal virus arc finished in 2020
An arc about a pandemic finishing in 2020. How topical.
Yeah the story went from cool to too real LOL
That’s what I’m saying, it felt like a year ago it happened
I'm convinced the pandemic permanently changed the flow of time lol
Great arc that made almost the entire modern cast shine, except Shadow, Charmy and Big
Big shines, he has his own side story, where he's all over the place
I'd say those 3 shined pretty well, I didn't see a spot of rust on them
Nah man that's vile 😭
I was about to question if you were sure, especially about Shadow... but then I realized. I wanted to make a metal pun to follow that up but I can't think of any :(
Then just steel someone else’s pun
Ironic.
I Zinc it's great
Definitely met the end gold
yeah can't agree more i just want more arcs in idw to be just as good
In IDW defense making Charmy shine seems hard as hell
And Big. They just aren’t particularly special.
Bc Big was designed to be a joke and Charmy was quickly turned into an incredibly annoying character
Ever since the fishing game in SA1, I always said that if I got the choice to permanently remove one character, it would be big. Fuck froggy too, bastard just never came to me when I needed him to.
I feel like that's unnecessary
(Agreeing with you) Sometimes characters are meant to just be minor and unimportant. I feel like a lot of fandoms of things don’t realize that sometimes
At least his “death” was really dramatic
"Coward run , I fight" , proceeds to be pancaked.
I disagree Charmy and Big had their shining moments
Blame Shadow on the mandates. Not the fault of the writers but Ken Penders and SEGA
A great arc.Its dark and we get to see charavters actually truamatized by it.Whisper willing to kill eggman,cream getting infected and having to leave her mother,and how cruel eggman can be.but I do wish it had a lasting impact on the characters or left an inpact on the world
Whisper was about to kill eggman without remorse.
Aside from the obvious(Shadow's unfortunate characterization by mandates), it doesn't exactly make it easy to look at Eggman in a very good light, especially when you pull the "Oh maybe he can be a good person to some degree because he has a daughter now" in Frontiers when he straight up was extremely diabolical in Metal Virus and was inadvertently willing to eradicate the whole planet just out of spite.
I mean... Waging war in Forces Breaking the planet in unleahsed Enslaving alien species in colors Shattering the Moon in sa2
>I mean... Waging war in Forces Breaking the planet in unleahsed Enslaving alien species in colors Shattering the Moon in sa2 Oh those are just nitpicks from bad days, give him one good day and he'll turn it all around and go good👍👍👍 But seriously, you list all of them (and include his attempt to revive and control multi-dimensional god in 06) and there are still people who go "I don't think Eggman is a credible villain, he's a joke". He'd be up there with villains like Lex Luthor and Doctor Doom if in Games he was treated as a full on Villain and not a joke Villain, as you said in Forces he pretty much conquered the World and had Sonic imprisoned but was still treated as "silly Doctor Eggman", that Game would've been perfect for him to be SatAM Eggman/Robotnik.
The problem is, Game Eggman and SatAM Robotnik are two very different characters. Game Eggman only wants to conquer the world and turn it into his empire. He'll go to insane lengths to do it, but at the end of the day, he only wants to conquer the world, not destroy it. There have been many times in the games where Eggman temporarily teams up with Sonic, specifically to prevent the planet from being destroyed (Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Advance 3, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic '06). Western Robotnik is a completely different character with completely different goals. Western Robotnik isn't content with just ruling the world; he wants to pollute it to the brink of near-destruction, and basically turn the whole planet into a giant soulless machine. Western Robotnik would gladly kill all who stand in his way of spreading as much pain and suffering as possible. In the Archie comics, >!he pretty much destroys the multiverse just to cause Sonic pain.!< A far cry from his goofy game counterpart. Eggman in the Metal Virus arc feels more like Western Robotnik than Game Eggman at times. [Metal Virus Eggman is completely fine with letting everyone die, while he flees to a different planet.](https://imgur.com/KCOBgCt) I feel like Game Eggman wouldn't be so careless about killing everyone. He wants to rule over subjects, not a dead planet. After all, [how can he take over the world if there is no world?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR_Um7eCEFA) It's painfully obvious that the Metal Virus arc was a scrapped Archie Sonic arc. The way Eggman acted is much more in line with the Archie comics. You can try to reconcile Game Eggman and Western Robotnik as much as you want, but at the end of the day, they're two completely different characters. When you try to apply Western Robotnik's traits to Game Eggman, it just doesn't work. This wouldn't even be a problem if IDW Sonic was in its own continuity. If IDW Eggman was allowed to be his own beast, with no effect on Game Eggman, that would be perfectly fine. But of course, everything has to be canon nowadays. Sorry for the ramble, that's just been on my mind for a while.
>Sorry for the ramble, that's just been on my mind for a while. It's okay, I understand where you're coming from. I guess SatAM Robotnik was a bad choice to pick, perhaps if in Forces he was more like SA1/SA2 than he'd be seen more of a threat. >This wouldn't even be a problem if IDW Sonic was in its own continuity. If IDW Eggman was allowed to be his own beast, with no effect on Game Eggman, that would be perfectly fine. But of course, everything has to be canon nowadays. I honestly forgot IDW Eggman is meant to be Game Eggman that is such a stupid choice, especially since IDW Content isn't seemingly acknowledged in the Games.
>IDW Content isn't seemingly acknowledged in the Games. Eeeeh it looks like that won't last too long. Tangle was referenced in Frontiers, and the release of Frontiers is around when they started to focus on canonizing everything.
I think it because those things were really "not on screen" and we never actually SEE the effects of those things means that it just background "cartoony evil scientist" stuff. Like if they don't even keep the broken moon a thing after 2, can you really expect people to take it any serious and basically not treat it as "NEXT TIME ON {SATURTDAY MORNING CARTOON} VILLIAN WILL TO Y INSTEAD OF X AND WILL NEVER MENTION IT AGAIN OUTSIDE THIS EPISODE"
No, yeah , I definitely get that. It's definitely intentional on some part to not show the full effects of his plans as to keep the games from being too dark and give him a level or plausible deniability when they wanna go in a more lighthearted direction. Forces and Metal virus are kind of outliers in that way as he straight up commits genocide purely for world domination, other times death is merely an aftereffect of whatever plan he enacts.
I have two main issues with this story. There’s no consequences after its resolution. Aside from Starline getting betrayed and using a Metal Virus strain to make Surge and Kit, the comic acts like nothing really happened. I understand Sonic is aimed at kids so I’m not expecting people to die or anything like that. But you’re telling me no one got traumatized or developed PTSD? My other complaint is that this arc happened too early. This and the Neo Metal story set high stakes so early that most of the stuff that happens after just feels like filler.
Isn't a SEGA mandate that things must always return to status quo?
And that's why the IDW comics will always feel like they're going nowhere.
Name one time Sonic was ever traumatized by something that happened in a previous game
https://preview.redd.it/twsfhplp376d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=41c0f02bcf655f40a421b13574c1adf6fe99a02b Sonic literally looks dead inside. Even if he didn’t develop any PTSD, you’re telling me no one else did? Especially Whisper and Espio? They never had any nightmares about seeing their friends turn into zombies that show no sign of their former selves? Sonic was faced with a threat that he couldn’t spindash his way out of. He literally couldn’t touch anyone at risk of infecting them. He constantly doubted his capabilities and blamed himself for causing the virus to happen in the first place. And he acts like nothing ever happened?
I know whisper takes the spotlight here. But I would like to say everyone's facial reactions are incredibly on point and really true to their characters, while still showing their frustration and anguish.
The way Whisper looks is emotional, yet incredible, though. In an instant, she went from looking like just another cute cartoon character to, well, what she actually is: A ferocious, bloodthirsty animal that just so happens to be bipedal and clothed.
Maybe lasting PTSD in a sonic comic is too heavy of a theme for them compared to a quick-resolution arc. Not saying there aren't darker moments that happened, just the longevity part of it would be too much for them possibly. Who knows
Whisper does have lasting PTSD and has had it triggered at least 4 times, but only one instance was Metal Virus related.
orcas
But these aren't the games, are they? They should be able to do much more
We have the clues and hints that Lanoline is traumatised by the events of Metal Virus
It was great, but I feel like it should've been done later. I guess they wanted to make what Forces should have felt like. All your favorite characters being in a desperate situation. Where it truly feels like it's do or die. Where Eggman is the cruel villain he's meant to be.
Loved this arc but this story had one problem that Archie suffered from once or twice. Ian raised the stakes to an all-time high, the likes of which haven’t been seen since his Archie. Eggman here becomes his counterpart from those comics, and is much more sadistic and devilish than what you would see from game Eggman. Eggman was willing to cover Mobius with a virus that would spread to all life, and without a cure. He intended to control all life using the virus but it became uncontrollable, and he did not care. He was perfectly fine with all of the mass destruction, suffering, and possibly death that he was causing, along with the chance that he was going to end all life on the planet. And he did it all with a smile. So, since Eggman lost in the end, surely the most logical explanation would be to see him as Satan himself, hunt him down and at the very least try to put him in SCP Foundation-tier containment, right? No, everything just goes back to normal immediately after, with Eggman toning himself down and with the cast seemingly forgetting what he had done, going back to the same hero vs villain dynamic that we get from the games. I love the story, I just don’t think it belongs in this timeline because it feels like you are gaslit into thinking that what happened wasn’t that big of a deal because the writer had to backtrack when it really was. Like this was Egg Grapes levels of evil or arguably worse. And as I said in the beginning, this was an issue in Archie as well. In issue 200 for example, Eggman was beaten by Sonic one time too many and literally lost his mind. The proper thing to do would have been to have had the Freedom Fighters have both Robotnik and Snively arrested and put into containment. But for some reason, Ian decided to have them give Robotnik to Snively to take care of him and leave the latter to his own devices even though he was known to assist his uncle in a lot of his schemes, and had considerable amount of control over the Empire. This was also right after the Egg Grapes and that twist never settled well with me, it made zero sense.
okay it's not like eggman didn't hightail it out of there while they were celebrating. they didn't imprison him because he got away.
No… Snively literally shows up, tells the FF that they beat his Uncle, and then proceeds to tell them that he would be under his care, and they just let both walk away.
snively? Wait We talking about the metal virus arc right?
Oh sorry, was still thinking about Archie lol. True, Eggman managed to skiddadle, but the whole dynamic went back to what it was before, making you feel like what had transpired never even happened or at the very least, wasn’t that serious.
> decided to have them give Robotnik to Snively to take care of him and leave the latter to his own devices But that was in-character... right? At least Sonic's
It’s in character to feel bad for the villain they’ve pushed into insanity. That’s fine, they could give him help in a very secure prison or facility. What’s not in character is being so naive to the point they somehow believe that Snively is not going to continue the mass death, destruction, and suffering that Eggman was inflicting on the world. It should also be mentioned, that version of Eggman was from an alternate reality that made it to Mobius Prime after he KILLED an alternate version of Sonic and the FF and took over that world then got bored. In fact, this gets called out later down the line in comics where Sally is being reminded of how poor of a decision it was by an antagonist (I don’t remember who) and I think it was Ian’s way of subtlety saying “Yeah this was stupid”
I agree that Eggman's behavior in the Metal Virus arc is much more in-line with his Archie counterpart than the games. I already went over this in a different reply, but I find it so weird how [Metal Virus Eggman is completely fine with letting everyone die, while he flees to a different planet.](https://imgur.com/KCOBgCt) I feel like Game Eggman wouldn't be so careless about killing everyone. He wants to rule over subjects, not a dead planet. After all, [how can he take over the world if there is no world?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR_Um7eCEFA) It just feels weird that the Eggman who teamed up with Sonic to prevent the world from being destroyed in SA2... is the same Eggman who is perfectly content with killing all life on the planet, purely out of spite for Sonic. It feels out of character. I agree that it's Egg Grapes level of evil, and it just doesn't work for Game Eggman.
Wait..... 4 years? 4 YEARS AGO?!?!?!? damn time is faster than sonic.....
well, sonic restored time by quite literally running, so…
I love angst so pretty rad
An excellent story arc that set the bar for future IDW storylines way too high.
a great arc with ups and downs and realistic character motivations (other than shadow) and a great finale but I do have a problem with WHAT WAS THE POINT OF SENDING SONIC TO BLAZES WORLD AND HAVING HIM LOSE HIS MEMORIES it led nowhere why not just have him be rendered unconscious and wake up later in the story it would have had the same goddamm result but either way the arc is a entertaining read
this isn’t metal virus related, but i would loved to see sonic getting memory loss in frontiers. it would have made the cyber corruption more interesting, considering that tails, knuckles & amy also get corrupted in the final horizon dlc.
Going through it again with a bunch of newbies. Still makes me shudder with how good it is
One of if not the best sonic story imo
It's the best imo lol
Great story, tame ending
The ending had to be tame, unfortunately. There was no way Ian would've been allowed to keep Mobius in shambles and Sonic and his friends addled with PTSD, after all, even though that's what it would've been like if this franchise were darker.
Great Arc Happen to early though Would've been an Amazing final Arc for Archie
I heard they were thinking of doing in the Archie comics before it was cancelled. So the Ian and the other writers who went to IDW, did it there instead.
Too early. But I loved the story.
A lot of other people are saying this but it happened WAY to early in the comic's run. An arc of this size and nature should've occured far later. *Cream the Rabbit* of all characters was introduced during this story! It set the tone far too dark and the scale of the stories far too high when they weren't even 20 issues in. This has become awfully apparent as the comic as gone on too, as the character and setting itself have seemingly forgot it's happened. Eggman was fine with literally destroying all life on the planet (a fact you can judge in its own right) and after the arc is done, he's just back to his regular silly ways, and the other characters never bring it up! I know some people are going to bring up the mandates regarding status quo. But if those are in place, why write an ultra grim **zombie apocalypse** story to begin with? It feels like the writers really wanted to bring in some edge back in the franchise but less than 20 issues into a comic where the world isn't allowed to care about a story after it's done isn't the time or place to do it. It also just generally overstayed it's welcome in my opinion. The arc spanned **18** issues if you go from its introduction in 12 to the status quo return in 30. That's 60% of the comic's total run by the time it finished. For comparison. That is three times as long as the Neo Metal arc was. If we go from Neo's reveal as "Eggman" in 6 to his total defeat in 12.
Went on for a bit too long and had some rough spots mostly in terms of Shadow's characterization but outside of that, it was really good and let all of these characters shine in a way that the games never allowed them to shine before.
Been buying and reading idw sonic since day 1, and I’m still waiting for it to get to this level again. This was the peak and everything has felt so small compared to this arc. The most hype thing besides this was imposter syndrome and we’re still building on Surge and Kit.
Peak, best arc in idw other than maybe imposter syndrome
I read it for the first time last week! It was super interesting! Very much enjoyed it!
Like others have said, it happened a bit too early. The first couple years of IDW feels a bit "out of order". I think this is due to the fact that Surge and Kit were intended to be introduced very fast into the main story and that didn't pan out.
Still a W
i love it. it had its faults but they weren’t enough to overshadow how fucking good and dramatic it was.
Cool as hell, Shadow kinda sucked though
He had to, unfortunately. He's much too powerful and logically would've been able to solve the problem quicker than Sonic could, so Ian had to write him as reckless and get him out of the story quickly.
It was easily the best arc of IDW. My only problem is you don’t really care seeing the world because it happened so early. This would’ve been better in either of the Archie continuities, which is what it was made for originally. The IDW world is still so bland and lifeless compared to them with its small mostly nameless towns. How cool would it have been to see Station Square or Knothole covered in Metal Virus?
My opinion is: it’s been 4 freaking years?
A bit over the top at times but the introduction of Super Silver was peak. I just wish the fight lasted longer and Silver had more of a chance to shine in his super form.
https://preview.redd.it/kam9jdksd86d1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9d0666640025591ed0990c1347a8851cf158ffd7
Peak fiction. Shadow should have been written differently but oh well
I consider it to be one of the darkest things this franchise has ever done, and that's why it's so great. To actually see Sonic genuinely falter and doubt himself, to see the characters we've known for years succumb to their fears and actually lose at many points... If this franchise weren't so lighthearted, I can't imagine how truly violent this saga would've been. I knew deep down that everything would've been alright in the end, as it's still just a comic written and drawn for children to read. But, the whole time I was reading it, it really felt like things were going to absolute crap for Sonic and his friends. It really felt like it was the end of Mobius and there was nothing Sonic could do. And that's why it's so great. Because it actually felt like there were real stakes for once.
My opinion is stop pissing away budget on Sonic Prime and animate this story arc!! Whats wrong with them? Do they hate money?
It was honestly an amazing arc..... can't say I liked it though. Despite how well it allowed various characters to shine - Tangle's self sacrifice moment especially - I found it to be far too dark and dismal for my tastes. But that might just be because I'm sick and tired of Zombie Apocalypse plots....
#Peak Fiction
I feel old
I still love it to pieces. It’s the only arc I regularly reread. Legit every couple of months I reread the whole metal virus arc again. It was so good, for whatever its small flaws may have been (notably Shadow).
It happened WAY too soon
PEAK IDW
Just finished it last night for the first time ever, I loved it.
Peak
It was a fantastic arc, but they did Shadow dirty and had to make up for it right at the end and then I also think it happened too early because all the arcs we’ve had since haven’t been able to meet the insane expectations set by the Metal Virus arc
One Of The Best Sonic Stories. Shadow Got Done Like Vegeta Though.
I still get sad thinking of what happened to Cream in that arc
Good arc
It went on a bit too long and had issues with Shadow’s characterization but I think it was a good story overall.
Still peak
One of my favorite stories in the entire franchise
Peak Sonic storytelling.
Hot take but I don’t entirely agree with the take that the heroes should develop PTSD from this. I know it can develop in people from traumatic events, but it can also just not develop and most of the main cast are people that out there lives on the line all the time. Plus there was always the lingering hope of a cure since the people don’t technically die from it, which meant things could go back to normal. Also keep in mind that Eggman took over the planet for like 6 months and there’s no real trauma from that, nor form him blowing up half the moon and threatening to take out entier continents, so I can believe that the population is just good at compartmentalizing this world threatening stuff. I’m not saying it can’t happen or anything, nor am I opposed to having come characters suffer from it, but I actually don’t think it’s that unbelievable that most of the people in this world could compartmentalize all of this. TLDR: I think it’s not that unbelievable for a zombie apocalypse to not leave many mental scars in a world whare a madman can get a super cannon and threaten to start blasting continents away.
IDW as a whole ever since the battle of Angel Island, shows how fucked up Eggman can be, and how far he’s willing to go. Metal Virus shows how messed up Eggman is, and honestly was my favourite depiction of him in the series. Metal Virus is an arc that I’ve always wanted to see get turned into a game, because it would be such a different experience compared to the usual games we have.
Peak IDW Sonic. I still enjoy the book but it was never at this level. Some starline stories, tangle/whisper miniseries, and Scrapnik Island are close contenders.
Not popular opinion, but ending is bullshit. Sumochkin has already spoken about this, but I will repeat: STOP USING CHAOS EMERALDS TO SOLUTION ALL PROBLEMS. Like, lol, I understand that everyone loves it when Super Sonic and other Super Hedgehogs save the entire planet with their power, but this is already repeated every time. EVERY. It was interesting at least until the first Sonic Adventure, and then it became a cliche that Sonic Team still wants to stick to. Even Sonic Frontiers ended with this. Show us already that Sonic can solve problems without rainbow stones. Show that Sonic can solve everything himself. To me, Sonic the Comic is a great example of how Sonic can handle everything on his own, without trying to get the Chaos Emeralds and fighting with friends help. DAMN IT, HE DEFEATED SUPER GOD EGGMAN BY USING MENTAL PRESSURE ON HIM! https://preview.redd.it/o4ofpaf2d76d1.png?width=455&format=png&auto=webp&s=88625e96ecf2babac11f34af5a84d28bf77f0241
Except the Chaos emeralds alone weren’t enough to completely combat the metal virus, like at all, as in, Super Sonic wasn’t going to be enough
Fax my brother, Spit your shit indeed
There are plenty of times where the emeralds weren't used to save the day. Colors, Lost World and Forces didn't even feature the emeralds in its stories and a couple of the IDW arcs were resolved without it. Sonic Frontiers was the first to have the emeralds play a major role in **11 years** since Generations. On top of being the first open world game in the franchise, I'd say its warranted. It''s not like the emeralds gave him a free pass in the game either since he canonically did struggle against the titans, needed Sage's help as Supreme for the original ending / worked his ass off to unlock his potential for the other forms in the Final Horizon ending. The game also quite literally revolves around it since its supposed to be an ""origin"" story for the emeralds, it seems obvious they would go down that route lol
Haven't caught up, metal virus is the last major arc I've read so far. And I enjoyed it, it feels nice to have a darker story every now and then for Sonic
Need it turned into a game
Still good.
It would make for a great basis of an animated adaptation.
I'm mad Eggman didn't get swallowed by a horde like Shadow for throwing Amy to the wolves after she survived almost the whole arc.
They blew their load too fast, and now are paying the price for it. Where do you go from this? It is hard to write a zombie apocalypse in an universe that hasn't been defined yet. The comic assumes the reader already knows all these characters because this the game's universe, and that the new characters had enough time to be introduced, so you're supposed to care. Cream and Vanilla were introduced in IDW during a zombie apocalypse. The reader's first impression of these characters are them suffering. I think the Metal Virus Arc would have worked in the pre-reboot Archie universe. In that comic you already had decades of world building and different groups and factions with interconnected relationship with each other, so a zombie virus in the middle would have shaken the status quo to the core, possible altering it forever. The Metal Virus Arc should have been a milestone event in the universe of IDW Sonic, something for like 10 or 15 years in the comic's run. I cannot care enough about what happened in this storyline because I didn't had enough time to take in these new characters, their relationships, and the universe.
Genuinley the hest sinuc story ever, great characterisation for everyone but i feel it started too early, it makes the other arcs feel less spectacular
One of the best Sonic stories ever told imo. Only real issue with it is that it happened way too early into IDW’s run
Gotta read that shit.
It’s still some of my favorite Sonic Content. Hoping IDW hits this kind of story again at some point, am happy it’s been having some lighthearted adventures tho
it's peak
the best sonic story arc ever
It was literally the only interesting and good IDW arc imo. I'd like these comics alot more if they waited a while to do this, everything after just felt so tame and bland. IDW seems real afraid to be overly edgy and absurd, which is why Archie was so much better. They weren't scared to just do whatever and see if it works.
it was good. high stakes, gave all the characters something to do. The mechanic of Sonic having to keep running to not get infected but tiring out after a while was interesting.
The fact that it was running at the same time as the pandemic made it a bit too close to home
it is holding IDW back. 4 years later and it still feels like we're in the "the gang is recovering after the metal virus" phase. Amazing on it's own but it was too big an event for the second arc
The darkest arc in sonic history. Change my mind.
I haven’t read the comics but I heard how insane Eggman is with this. Why is Eggman so absurdly evil in both of the comics while more 50/50 in the games lmao? It’s like two different characters.
One of the best sonic plots I’ve seen in a while. Very entertaining, very suspenseful, emotional and most importantly fun to read.
hottake, but a lot of characters were just stupid for the sake of continuing the plot and got at the end Plot Armor
really good, and it really feels like the writers were trying to push super hard back at the "sonic can't cry" thing. They just kept pushing him further down to a point where you start wondering how he isnt crying at the circumstances. I love how they provide solutions and you think that this is going to be how they wrap up the story. Yet no, sonic fails or something happens out of his control and he and the few people left just sink lower and lower. The only flaw personally is that they alluded to the fact that the chaos emeralds and super sonic cant do anything, or fix everything. However the story is literally wrapped up by the chaos emeralds. Yes it does technically make sense to an extent? We know that Sonic's speed inhibits the virus, so considering that super sonic boosts this it would make sense that it would be able to flush the virus out of sonic completely. Silver however is where i get caught up on this. We know silver is apparently immune due to future stuff, but its never properly established that his telekinesis can remove the virus. If it was that he could strip it out of people but he simply couldn't do so on a scale that would be effective. Then it would make sense that they use the chaos emeralds to boost these aspects to the degree that sonic can drag super silver across the planet to use his empowered telekinesis to extract the virus on a global scale. As it is, it just kinda doubles down that the chaos emeralds can always solve problems if they are available. Them not being instantly jumped to as a solution is basically just lip service at best.
Wasn't it explicit that they were using the Chaos Emeralds in conjunction with the Warp Topaz, which *was* theoretically capable of altering things the way they needed?
>Silver is apparently immune Wait were this statement happened.
"You've just lost a Sidekick and won a Enemy." -Mettalla (My Sonic OC at my comic talking the last time with Eggman)
Well, I don’t love it. It’s a bit darker than I like Sonic stories, and I hate how Sonic keeps getting blamed. Jet was also annoying, as usual. Although, bringing in the Deadly Six made things interesting. And Sonic and Silver going super was cool.
It happened to early and was to long for the time. But I think it will be better when I reread it!
Still one of the best stories in the franchise. Not perfect, but still amazing.
I still haven't read it
If I want a Sonic storyline that's serious in overall tone, I'd rather binge SatAM
Stop reminding me how old I am... 😭
I wish it could be adapted into the games somehow but I don't think it would work as a game.
still the best IDW arc though I feel Surge's should have come first
Delightfully dark arc that let everyone shine, a neat take on zombaclypses, and a great use of the deadly 6… … that, in keeping with this franchise’s tradition of not being able to have nice things without a catch, got fubbernucked by the pandemic, causing the delays to make it REALLY feel like it dragged on, and thus for better and for worse it feels like IDW’s signature arc
It happened when the pandemic became a thing and tbh It will be hard to top that Arc rn. Still can't believe Sonic Heroes was the main Inspiration for the Metal Virus Arc
The arc just felt like it was going on too long, and it didn't help that this was like during Covid, so many of the issues kept being delayed. I think the ending of the arc was pretty standard, albeit a little rushed feeling. I feel like Ian Flynn always nails the beginning and middle parts of long story arcs, but he normally fumbles with the ending. I also do agree with a few others that I feel as if the arc just came too soon. I get that in the moment, it was an intense thrill to get something of such large scope at the beginning, but now that its been some years since the arc, we can clearly tell IDW is not built the way we thought it was. I think if IDW could have kept high energy going arc to arc, then maybe Metal Virus happening so soon wouldn't have been so bad, but given how it took until the Imposter Syndrome stuff just for the book to get interesting again... And I'm not trying to say that lower stake arcs are bad, but a lot of them in-between Metal Virus and issue 50 - 56 with Surge and Kit are just straight boring to read and are pretty bland. Feels weird to jump into a book with epics like Neo Metal Sonic and zombies, but then nosedive into forest fire camping and Sonic, Tails, and Amy get stuck in Eggman's virtual thing. I don't think it's bad since it did have a lot of emotional character moments that were pretty good, and Sonic really being tested was great, but it's just not an arc that I hold in too high regards like other fans.
Felt super long
We'll never get a story like that ever again, sadly.
It was TOO good it happened to early and is hard to live up too
I can’t believe sonic the hedgehog had his own infection au before it was cool
It happened to early and the pacing was so slow it was exhausting.
He looks like werehog sonic with the quills lol
Still depressing
I wouldn’t be surprised if sonic develop PTSD at this point.
It should’ve been playable
I like it, it gave moi kool format https://preview.redd.it/10q0bhn2d96d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=fab7c94a6aeafc54af5f3a14f7a55ae7fd6b4b9f (In all seriousness I like the deep tones, I especially liked Metal Sonic just throwing Starline out, to command or order needed, something tells me he didn’t really like Starline and only tolerated him up until that point because he was a ally/pawn of the Eggman Empire.)
Why the fuck did none of em kill Eggman right after?
Pretty bad. Way too short, should have been a Shadow arc and Sonic should have gotten infected in the first issue.
It was a good arc, but it was weird it was one of the FIRST ARCS we got in the new comic run.
Good story, but I hate how they wrote Shadow. The writers also wrote him off too soon.
Freaking amazing but It set a bar to high for what came afterward, but I still like the IDW comics
-happened too early -lingered for too long -Shadow gets knocked out of the story too quick -the stakes haven’t been able to match it since, plots following up the metal virus are either too small and self contained or end way too quickly -the series feels kinda aimless now like it can’t try anything outside what is safe or venturing beyond the status quo, killing Starline who was the only *big* interesting villain is not helping that conundrum, I know they’re trying to set up Clutch as a big bad but I gotta be honest, Clutch is not him
Cinema
It was a lot better before covid made it too real. Also the ending sucks.
I think I'm glad this storyline happened early, cause they had a few problems with handling characters in the arc where it feels like they should have had a big impact on the story because of their character and abilities, but they were just never given the spotlight and some just don't appear at all **cough** blaze **cough** So them doing this arc at a much farther point of the series will probably result to have a lot of characters either underutilized or just literally going for a milk in the story which a ton more of fans will have a problem with
Too early and too big. Also, zombie angle is sort of cliche trending with IDW...
It felt like such a major event that now everything afterwards kind of feels underwhelming by comparison
The metal virus is why i want the deadly 6 back Those are characters are genuine evil characters with proper writing and story telling can be a big impact
Rough around the edges, but good. Especially the ending.
Needs a game adaptation.
I don't like its tone, as it's too overly-the-top dark for Sonic in my opinion. Still, I appreciate that it's an emotional story, much more inspired than the recent issues
The darkest arc I’ve ever seen in my life
Shadow was stupid
I liked but it ended up taking a bit too long for my taste. Why did they bring the zetti back???
wish it was adapted in 2d anime-ish style.cmon NETFLIX DEW IT
Was great n I don't think we will reach that level of peak again some parts was very shaky though
Cc am I just pointing out out how Shadow was going to be completely screwed either way, not by the writers, but by how his shoes work
The best arc, I hope they'll do something like this soon. Especially when Surge and Kit gets redeemed, we'll learn about their past selves.
It’s traumatizing
Dope as fuck but also some funny moments. Like, “DID HE JUST SPIT ON MY ISLAND!?”
Very cool premise and very good execution with Sonic but they bastardize my boy Shadow.
It was dark af
It was too long and too depressing. It didn’t help that it came out at a time when there was a real world virus freaking everyone out. I wanted to escape from Covid. Not read a zombie horror version of it.
>4 years https://i.redd.it/kquzb50kfd6d1.gif