STH#278 Spoilers & Discussion

[Ian Flynn]

I'm stupid-busy this week, and I hear rumblings of people getting their hands on the issues, so up goes the thread.

[Meliden]

Okay, here's a picture of Nephthys, from CC14.

Spoiler: show

It's the mystery figure on the cover of SU#84, alright.

[Mr.Unsmiley]

It's the mystery figure on the cover of SU#84, alright.

well, between peppers and thomas, someone's taking some drastic liberties with the design

[Mordum]

That is a ballin' bird.

[Meliden]

It's the mystery figure on the cover of SU#84, alright.

well, between peppers and thomas, someone's taking some drastic liberties with the design

Eh, doesn't seem that drastic. Just turn it to a face-on angle and simplify the feathers and that's basically it.

[Penguin God]

They look like a Power Rangers villain. That's not a complaint.

[Meliden]

Okay, so spoiler de spoiler a go go.

-Sonic and co are busting Badniks/Egg Soliders in Shamar when Horde Commander comes in and they start to struggle a bit. That's when new heroes come in and help them out. They call themselves the Freedom Fighters.
-The Egg Army retreats, and Sonic and the new hedgehog-like guy exchange brag talk. This soon ends when Sonic mentions his identity.
-The new heroes are Spike the Porcupine, Sonar the Fennec and Trevor Burrow the Mole, and they're huge fanatics about Sonic and his team. Sonic asks them to help on their mission.
-They're looking for Shamar's temple guardian, Ehsan (in the game, he's a temple repairman), but nobody has seen him. While Big is talking to Yasmine, we see mysterious fish girl walking about, complete with correctly inserted head fins this time.
-The FFs, Spike and Trevor have been unsuccessful, but Sonar's ability has let her spy in and find out Ehsan's whereabouts; the Egg Army have kidnapped him and put him to work repairing what is presumably the Gaia temple. The heroes set off to it.
-By the time they get there, it's night. Spike and Sonar are terrified of his new visure, but Trevor can't see it so he asks them to describe it. Also some great banter between Big and Antoine.
-Sonic splits them into teams, Trevor, Spike and Antoine are in one group, Big, Sonar and Chip are in another. They're sneaking around the place getting past Egg Soldiers.
-Trevor notes that the footprints in the dirt indicate that the Egg Army have found the tunnel (he uses touch to work that out) and Antoine laments how dark the place is. It isn't for long when fire orbinauts suddenly light up.
-Sonic laments how easy it's been for him to sneak around, but them a huge spotlight shines onto him; Nephthys the Vulture has found him.


-Bunnie and Cassia continue fighting over the last Chaos Emerald while exchanging words. Cassia's jab about the parts being self-improvement hits a nerve with Bunnie, and Cassia continues to dig until Bunnie punts her face into the ground. Unfortunately, the ground is unstable, and it cracks beneath them.
-Sally is approached by Clove, who warns her that attacking the temple would just lead to continued fighting. Sally asks why she should back down, but Clove says that she hoped that she'd be able to hear her out.
-Sally agrees to backing off the temple, but Clove laments that she didn't expect her to back down so readily. She then correctly works out that it isn't the Gaia Temple, but decides to return to her post much to Sally's surprise.
-Sally says she might be able to help Clove if she's working for Eggman but willing to play ignorant. Clove says that not involving her people in fighting is helping her, and bids her goodbye as she walks off.
-Back with the other two, Cassia has broken her leg. Bunnie berates her by saying she could ask Eggman for a new 'selfish' upgrade, but Cassia takes offence to that, since the cybernetics were her only option in getting her eyes and ears to work again.
-Bunnie tells Cassia of her wishing she could get her old body back when she was younger so she struggles to get her head around the idea of someone willingly giving that up. Bunnie asks her for advice on getting out of here (managing to negotiate with her since Cassia wanted the Chaos Emerald for it and Bunnie wasn't about to do that), and they bust through a sealed up doorway.
-Cassia asks about Bunnie's cybernetics on the way out, and Bunnie says it was tough but her friends helped her through. Her family weren't involved though, suggesting she has bad blood with them (as opposed to Cassia who is supported by her sister). Cassia asks if she had to have special treatment or medicine, and notes her bad luck when it turns out she hadn't.
-They get to the storage room out. Bunnie has to leave Cassia there, but reassures her that someone will come along to get her. That is when forces arrive, Cassia gives a troll face and Bunnie is under threat from her and more Egg Soldiers.

-The letter from the editor has concept art of Spike, Sonar and Trevor. They're just front-on pics for and look pretty close to the final designs.
-The off-panel is about Spike being a huge fan of Sonic, and having loads of merch of him...including the comic we're reading right now. Hey, there's a reason it's called Heavy Meta Overdrive.
-The letters section confirms that the mysterious fish girl is a Pufferfish. This would also confirm that Mobian genetics run on different rules to the pre-SGW ones since that would be inherited from her father BUT YOU DIDN'T HEAR THAT FROM ME NOPE NO SIRREE.

[Mr.Unsmiley]

It's the mystery figure on the cover of SU#84, alright.

well, between peppers and thomas, someone's taking some drastic liberties with the design

Eh, doesn't seem that drastic. Just turn it to a face-on angle and simplify the feathers and that's basically it.

well "drastic" may be too strong a word, but it doesn't even have the red markings from Peppers' art. the black tips on the feathers and the pupil-less eyes seem to be the main commonalities

[akessel92]

Well a few intresting things. Nepthys is a vulture even though the ancient goddess of her namesake is depicted as either a kite(a type of hawk) or a lady with wings. But, a vulture is ok. Which kinda begs the question on the "all birds being relative to the ancient Babylonians" are still a thing?

Cassia having problems before her enhancements is intresting. Though I wonder why she has to take a treatment whereas Bunnie doesn't? On the note of Bunnie I'm curious about this new absent family that she has.

[LordLaharlsVassal]

Guys this might sound silly, but this got me really excited, Nephthys design is awesome to me! Now why would this get me excited? She looks so impressive and intimidating, but not even the least bit conventionally attractive. That is so neat to me, most girls in this franchise look so cute, pretty and are based on some sweet little animal, but gosh, this one though is a completely different beast, a vulture even! It warms the cockles of my heart. Nephthys is a female right? I am not dreaming?

[Meliden]

Yeah, solicit explicitly referred to Nephthys as female.

[Penguin God]

Man this issue has a ton of great little things but the ten page format keeps it from having any actual meat. I absolutely love the game material being incorporated. I like the fandom Freedom Fighters. I like Nepthyr. But I really would have liked the story a lot more if it were either expanded or finished. They rush through the plot as quick as they can but in the end they still only get halfway. The art was fine, but got a little awkward at moments and rarely wowed me. I do enjoy there's a lot more thought put into the settings and that's shown off a lot since the reboot, but otherwise it's just functional. Also every issue starting with a generic shot of fighting Badniks is starting to grate. But overall? It's okay. It could just be better.
The Cassia/Clove story's more interesting, and feels more properly paced despite also being chopped up. Cassia and Clove being Sally/Bunnie parallels is fun, and their somewhat lazy villainy is fun. The art's better too, partially because it has less to focus on. Evan Stanley's tendency to draw big close-ups of characters works for the purpose of a story meant mostly for dialog.

[TheFatPanda]

"Sonar, you watch our backs. If anyone finds you, sic Big on 'em. No, seriously, he'll toss the mountain at them."

[Penguin God]

Oh right as a side note, Big and Antoine are a great duo. I'm not sure who Big doesn't work well with though, so I guess that was to be expected.

[Ian Flynn]

Specifically, Nephthys is an Egyptian Vulture.