Flynn Addresses Altered Sonic #244; Fans Look To Penders Settlement

– December 27, 2012

Flynn: “Arc wasn’t what I originally planned”

Some of those who received Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog #244 in the mail recently were a bit unpleasantly surprised to see developments unfold in part two of the Endangered Species arc.

If you haven’t read it, be warned that we’re about to spoil a major plot point. Flynn appears to write out most of the echidna characters as Thrash traps many of the characters via a warp ring, in effect erasing them from the Archie Sonic universe. The only two that appear left, at least in this issue, are Knuckles and Dr. Finitevus.

There’s no telling how the Endangered Species arc ends, but for the moment, it appears the likes of Lien-Da, Julie-Su, and many other once major characters are out of the comics. It just so happens the ownership of those characters and the story behind them, among many other things, were disputed by former Archie writer Ken Penders in a recently settled lawsuit Archie brought against him.

Current writer Ian Flynn admitted the arc saw changes in a post on the Bumbleking forum Sunday, but didn’t say why.

“Remember, we work months in advance to keep on schedule. When something abruptly changes, we can’t throw out months of work and thousands of dollars,” Flynn said. “We revise plans and move forward. This isn’t new, especially for veteran fans. This story arc wasn’t what I originally planned, but it’s also not “OMG TEH RUINED FOREVERZ.” We had to take it in a new direction, and we’re getting to do other things with the over-all plot this way.”

Flynn added in a follow-up post on Christmas Day that he doesn’t know all of what’s happening, and what he does know he can’t comment publicly on.

“I know it’s frustrating for you guys. It’s frustrating for me too. But it’s not something any of us can control. So instead of fretting over it, just relax and enjoy the book for what it is,” Flynn asked. “Trust me when I say everyone on staff is committed to bringing the best books we can. That hasn’t changed.”

Paul-Agnew

Posted January 27, 2013 at 1:15 AM

Myles, it’s good to see that you are enjoying the comics, and appreciate its unique cast of characters. What surprises me however, is that it took up until recently for the heroes and villains created by Ken to shimmer out of the story, rather than play it safe and have then put on hiatus back in mid-to-late 2010 when the matter went public.

Rockabore

Posted January 27, 2013 at 4:49 AM

I’m glad that Ken will get paid for his previous work. Even if he didn’t act very nice to some people arguing with him about some legitimate concerns, he deserved to get money from the reprints.

To a degree I’m glad he’ll be able to get paid for the use of his copywritten characters (If I understand that his settlement went that way that is). I say to a degree because I don’t know if it means we’ll be seeing them again, since Archie asking Ian to remove the characters last minute sounds like it might be them being cautious; but more likely it could also be them being petty and saying, “for all the trouble Ken caused we’ll never use his characters again and make sure he doesn’t get any royalties for them.” Which is sad because I feel like he put the effort to get them to be the as well-liked as they are and of all the ones who will miss out is the fans who buy the comic that provides/provided everyone who is involved in the lawsuit money.

I still gotta wonder how Ken plans to write a story about humanoid Echidnas without involving Knuckles’ lore and the Sonic world. I mean, he’s bananas if he thinks Archie wouldn’t pay attention and read it scanning for every sign of Sonic-ness and pounce on it and sue him over it. I feel like if he has this great story why not write it in its own world with his own mythos? It would be better that way too because then he could make it over again and make it his own more. They just don’t stand alone without being connected to Archie’s already established canon.