A letter I wrote to Ian Flynn a while ago.

[Lynchenberg]

I never sent this because I didn't see the point. However, I had something I wanted to quote from this in another letter tonight. Reading it over, I realized that I still feel the way I did when I wrote this letter. I feel this is the right place to finally express those feelings.

Dear Ian Flynn,

Up to this point, I've said you were doing your best to maintain the integrity of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series. It was primarily aimed at new readers, but there was still enough to engage long-time fans like myself. I loved the return of the Sonic/Sally banter for instance. Admittedly, I had some criticisms. I didn't like how Vector suddenly started speaking with an Australian accent. Whether I was a long-time reader or not, the explanation was convoluted. Other things sat awkwardly, like Charmy suddenly becoming "special" for lack of a better term. The "house-cleaning" at the beginning of the run also seemed a bit unceremonious, but I brushed it off quickly. But in terms of my reaction to most of these changes, I largely chalked them up to personal preference. My preferences don't match everyone else's, and the comics shouldn't be tailored specifically to old readers. The Sonic franchise is different now, and the comics need to reflect that. That's why your decision to push the comics to be more like the games never bothered me. But a recent decision really has. It isn't to do with the comics naturally changing, or reflecting what Sonic is like today. It's more to do with some of the fallout from the Genesis-Wave. Like many fans, I was disappointed by the abrupt reboot, but I didn't blame you for it. Considering the lawsuit, there wasn't much you could do. I was glad that the Freedom Fighters at least remembered the old world. But then today I read this: https://twitter.com/IanFlynnBKC/status/ ... 446111234I

That put me into the perspective of other long-term fans. Previously, I felt that they overreacted to the changes, most notably the redesigns. Now I wonder if they're against the redesigns in and of themselves, or what they represent. When Sonic Adventure came out and the game cast was redesigned to reflect it, I don't recall anyone complaining. In fact, my friends at the time were all adamant about how "cool" they looked in the new comics. I admit I didn't care for Sonic's new design. But I wasn't up in arms about it either. I just said, "I like the old one better," and left it at that. In terms of those stories, were they different to the first issues I read? Absolutely. But it was a slow, natural progression. The comic began life as a comedy, and gradually adopted the the sci-fi/adventure feel of SatAM, then gradually shifted to a Marvel/DC-style superhero book, before finally evolving into your own game-inspired work. Then all of a sudden, bang! None of that counts anymore. Perhaps fans sensed that the sudden design overhaul was the least of our worries? Because it's not like this is the first time the characters were re-designed. Sally's constantly changed from issue 0 onward. Bunnie quickly got to a point where she didn't resemble her early designs at all. Yet no one complained. I'll even chip in and say that while I'm not a fan of the "Sega" style (all the characters look the same to me,) I still vastly prefer their current designs to how Sally and Bunnie looked toward the end of the Bollers-run. I'm glad they're drawn like cartoons again, not realistic women with animal-heads.

So perhaps the backlash isn't because Sally doesn't have cheek fuzz or Antoine doesn't have a coat. Rather, it's because that along with the cheek fuzz and the coat, everything that made Sally and Antoine who they are has been chucked out the window. I don't expect Sonic (even just the comics) to always be the same as when I was a kid. What I liked about your work up to now is that before, you found a compromise between material for long-term readers and material for new readers. So I could embrace or at least understand the changes. But this is different. It's saying a story I was invested in for 20 years doesn't count anymore. It's worse because you even teased us by restoring their memories for a time. I thought, "Well, if they remember that world and it continues to affect them, those stories still mean something." Then suddenly I saw your tweet and, "Psyche! Actually they don't!" That's what's upsetting. It's not a big deal to me that Sally wears pants and isn't romantically involved with Sonic. But this renders all the great characterization and emotional moments in her history meaningless. And these aren't just events from the old comics, but ones you wrote too. I was deeply moved by Sally sacrificing herself to save the rest of Mobius. The panel of her remembering waking up to Sonic's kiss in End Game, then tearing up as she said goodbye gave me chills. I was also deeply invested in the Mecha-Sally story line, and disappointed that it was cut short. Leaving the story unfinished is merely unsatisfying. Saying it never happened at all is insulting.

You were a fan once Ian. Imagine you're still a little kid watching SatAM, and it did come back for a third season after all. But instead of paying off the cliffhanger in the second season, Naugus pressed a button that reset the world. Suddenly, everything was exactly like the Sega games at the time, and no one remembered anything. And then Sally showed up, perhaps looking like the "Ricky" sprite in the games. Then in a press statement, Ben Hurst said, "Well, you're just mad that she looks different now. Never mind that the all the characterization and story lines that made you care about her in the first place are gone. You should be happy that she's still here at all, and is still a brown squirrel. And if you're upset, it's just because she has a bow now. A bow isn't going to ruin her character."

I'm not asking for the designs to go back to being what they were in 1992. I'm not asking for Sonic and Sally to date. I'm pretty reasonable when it comes to the comics. I never even got mad at Karl Bollers for "the slap," or for "ruining" Sally's character. Why? Because the Sally who slapped Sonic is not the same Sally who said "You'll always be my hero, Sonic Hedgehog," in the final episode of SatAM. The Archie staff at the time never said SatAM is canon to their comic series. In spirit, it was a successor to it. I'd even say that in many ways it was "the lost third season." But it wasn't actually the third season, because the events followed End Game, rather than The Doomsday Project. Both stories served the same purpose, having Robotnik step down as the main villain for a time. So the comic was able to progress in a way that felt like a continuation for those who wanted one. Likewise, I had no problem with Sonic X or the OVA when they came out. Neither purported to be a continuation of SatAM. I confess I was baffled by Sonic Underground, as it superficially resembled SatAM. Even then however, it didn't begin as a SatAM continuation then say, "ZAP! Now Sonic's a prince with a brother and sister! Oh, and everyone but Sonic and Robotnik have been deleted from existence, and he doesn't even remember them!" Yes, it was weird seeing a show that was a lot like SatAM without it being SatAM. So that made it frustrating to me in a way Sonic X wasn't. But that said, I didn't feel like I watched two seasons of SatAM for nothing. Yet in a video interview you said, "You'll see that you haven't been reading 200-plus issues of a comic book for nothing." But that's exactly how I feel. Take my hypothetical third season of SatAM, but don't apply it to just two seasons. Instead, multiply it by over 20 years of not only the main series, but it's various spin-offs, specials and one shots. How would you feel?

This isn't so much frustration with you, but frustration with an industry that constructs stories in this manner. Garth Ennis put it best when he outlined his problem with superhero comics. "The stories will never end, so they'll never mean anything." Ennis's words ring very true to me, and I think that's why I've largely grown away from never ending serials. Endings mean the stories have actual consequences for the characters. The lack of consequences is a huge problem in comics, and that is a direct result of the fact they can't end. But the lawsuit could have been an opportunity for you to eschew that problem. If you weren't going to allow them to keep their memories, why not just finish up the Mecha-Sally story line? You could have said, "the old continuity can't move forward, so let's give it a proper ending instead." Such an emotionally charged story line was the perfect opportunity. It would have given older readers an exciting conclusion to that universe, and consequences that made it worth reading for 200-plus issues. That would've been difficult to accomplish without featuring or directly referencing the Penders characters, but I maintain it could be done. Then the comic could have been relaunched with a new number one issue. You could be doing exactly what you're doing now, and I'd be able to accept it on it's own terms. The Sally in that series wouldn't need to remember the past of the Sally in the other series. They wouldn't be the same Sally.

Even if you thought it best to continue the current series, why not have them remember their pasts, especially when you went to the trouble of restoring them in the first place? I understand you can't directly refer to the Penders characters anymore, or have the Sega characters date or have relatives. But surely you could at least imply that yes, they remembered those events, and are affected by them. Bunnie and Antoine are still married in the new continuity. But perhaps in the post-Genesis Wave timeline, they could have never married or even dated? Yet upon remembering, they could still behave as such. Perhaps even make plans for a second marriage in the current timeline? Sonic can't refer to having a family anymore, but there's also ways around that. In SatAM, Sonic and Sally often had similar emotional reactions to the events of each episode. But Sonic wasn't allowed to get overly emotional. So the solution was that Sally would often express emotions that Sonic shared, but wasn't able to articulate. Think about what having memories of a brother and a mother that don't exist anymore would do to Sally. I understand you can't refer to them by name due to rights issues. But what's to stop Sally from expressing grief over unnamed relatives? She could break down, as Sonic himself did upon losing Uncle Chuck in SatAM. But this time, Sonic could be the one who puts a hand on her shoulder. He could give her a look that says he understands, because he remembers his parents too. Then he could say something like, "I feel ya, Sal." That's the benefit of having characters that aren't in the games. Through their interactions with the game characters, they can give them depth they wouldn't possess otherwise.

I suppose I could say "Well, at least the core Freedom Fighters are still around. I should be grateful they continue to exist at all." Although judging from the track record so far, it's only a matter of time before they're phased out entirely. I'm not saying you'll do that yourself, but it will happen eventually. So as much as it hurts me to part with Sonic, this is a bridge too far for me. I wish you the best of luck with your writing career and I'm glad the current generation enjoys your work. But as for me, you've lost a reader. It hurts enough that all the stories I grew up reading are irrelevant. I'm not sticking around for the day when the Freedom Fighters are deleted from existence too. It makes me kind of glad the SatAM story line never continued into the 2000s. Because while the story is unfinished, it's still there unmolested. At least in that story line, the moments that moved me and brightened up my childhood still count. And at least in that world, there will always be a gang of kids fighting evil, yet never being corrupted by it.

Sincerely,
[Name withheld from public for privacy reasons]