SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #157 by Ken Penders & Ron Lim System Shutdown: Coinciding with the eagerly awaited Shadow the Hedgehog video game from Sega, its the eagerly awaited return of Sonic's dark counterpart, Shadow! After the huge fan response to the earth-shattering events in issues #146-149, Shadow returns to his mission of learning the truth of his hidden past even if he has to destroy Sonic and the evil Dr. Robotnik to get it! This time, however, a bigger unknown threat lurks in the background, waiting to destroy them all! One of the biggest, boldest twists ever to hit the Sonic comic-verse happens here! PLUS: Another head-spinning cover by Spaz! 32pgs, FC SRP: $2.25
From the 86th floor =D
W00T! Spaz is back! I'm so relieved!
EE
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Coinciding with the eagerly awaited Shadow the Hedgehog video game from Sega
Oh hell no.
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by Ken Penders & Ron Lim
Oh hell no.
I know scarecrow,more ron lim is depressing but at least hes better than dawn best or whatever her name is.(or at least i think so.)
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I know scarecrow,more ron lim is depressing but at least hes better than dawn best or whatever her name is.(or at least i think so since I prefer off-model, lifeless droopy art to the better alternatives.)
Fixed.
Don't get too scared. Penders has already told me that Archie comics will definitly NOT be doing an adaption of the Shadow The Hedgehog video game. This is just another Shadow story, seperate from the game.
stop being a freakin jerk to other opinions psx I never said that ron lim's art was good,it sucks but dawns looks like my own version of sonic when I was 8 where characters look cutesy and chubby.
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After the huge fan response to the earth-shattering events in issues #146-149
At least they've moved on from calling all of Ken's storylines "hugely popular". I like this description too, because it doesn't specifically state the the fan reaction was good.
is it possible for someone to post a link to this cover im anxious to see what awesomness spaz has cooked up in this cover
I am, too. We won't be getting our cover until tomorrow, though.
EE
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After the huge fan response to the earth-shattering events in issues #146-149,
I'm so tempted to see ALL fan response for that. It is shame, we can't even a fraction of them in the comic.
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I know scarecrow,more ron lim is depressing but at least hes better than dawn best or whatever her name is.(or at least i think so.)
I actually prefer Dawn Best's work over Lim's. However I don't like her attitude. >.>
Ron Lim and Ken Penders? Ouchu. This will definatly be one of the worst stories ever...
STILL I wouldn't mind seeing more of Shadow. He has a lot of potential for development. I just hope they don't screw him up too badly like they do with most of the other sega chars.
Personally I don't like how they've done Rouge...Rouge isn't THAT evil...
Dawn Best isn't too bad. She adds a thickness to the characters. The one thing that bothers me though, are those sloping forehead/eyebrows. She makes Knuckles look like a caveman. If she could work on that a little, it would be a huge improvement.
You have got to be kidding me. 
:"> They still have the gall to use Ron Lim as the penciler for a potentially good story, let alone any story? 
How ignorant is Archie? All they have to do is look up from their desks to find angry mobs all around them burning Lim in effigy. Isn't there a petition or something that can be done to get him canned?
Lighten up, a little. That's pretty disrespectful...
EE
What's disrespectful is Archie insulting our tastes by having Lim draw. 
The guy has no talent and obviously never went to a single art class. He must've bribed his way to his current position. The characters are emaciated, have grotesquely bulbous heads, what looks like liver spots in their eyes at times, and the backgrounds have no evidence of any effort put into them. Yes, I know some people out there say he is following a more anime-esque style, but I have a more accurate term for it: crap.
I have to agree with fansince10,ron's art is probably the worst that the comic has seen.I posted an earlier response saying dawns was worst but now that i've been looking through some of the older issues I realize now that ron's is even worse.Too bad that they can't have j.axer (my fav.
)do more issues.
Axer's your fav? Cool, mine's Butler. 
He really got my attention when he was the penciler for #62-75. Before then, Spaz was my fav (I think he did Mecha Madness didn't he?), but he hasn't been around (at least for story art) for quite a while.
I think so.I like butlers work in m:25 years later and in
in 146-149btw.
I really have to ask what is wrong with Lim.
I mean, honestly. He is definitely not the worst artist to grace Archie's pages, and it's not as if Sonic is his only art job.
Granted, he could do better, but I blame this more on the fact that around the time Lim came on, the anime change over was occurring in the comic. As his first priorities are probably with other, much larger projects (and always have been), I don't find it a surprise that his anime Sonic was rather horrid in the beginning. But, IMO, it really had gotten better.
So come on, people. Stop making it like his art is the coming of Armageddon. It isn't.
Be happy it's not, like, my mother drawing. Then you'd really have a reason to complain. o.<
*is dragged away by Rico for using his face*
I think his art improved alot on the first part of #153, but sunk back down later in the book. The man really is a very good comic artist. Check out his work on the last Thanos mini series. It's comparable to George Perez. The problem his that he can draw humans and background well, but when it comes to the main Sonic cast, it doesn't hold up as well. For Example, look at how he draws hope, then look at Shadow standing next to her. It's almost like a different artist.
I think there is a big difference between a comic book artist, and a comic book cartoonist. Would you ask Jim Lee to do Looney Tunes? No. It just wouldn't look right. AS much as I love Jon Grays work, you wouldn't have him do Batman right? There are some good "in-betweens" on the book. Such as Ken Penders and Steven Butler. They give the characters the right look, where both the furries and humans co-exist on the same page, with the same art style.
If that's the case, then Archie should only have hired the right type of artist, and Lim isn't one of them. Like my namesake, I've been collecting the issues ever since #10 and I've the work of every penciler before and afterwards. 
Therefore, I must say that Lim has a long way to go if he ever wants me to stop berating him.
Can someone post the cover art please?
lol its not like we're going to light some torches and go to the archie offices and run him out of town or anything and were not acting like its armageddan.I'm sure that most people on the staff on the comic has bigger things going on but the point is that they need to have some sort of expectation in their performance in the work that they do. If we pay for their salary than we should voice our opinions.thats how the world has always worked. I think someone is going to post it today sonicforever.
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I know scarecrow,more ron lim is depressing but at least hes better than dawn best or whatever her name is.(or at least i think so.)
Al Bigley.
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Coinciding with the eagerly awaited Shadow the Hedgehog video game from Sega, its the eagerly awaited return of Sonic's dark counterpart, Shadow!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I'm definitely not regretting my decision not to renew my subscription based on that.
Heh, I'm curious as to what the letters have said myself, but there are always some who like the stuff.
Well as bad as Ron is, he is leagues above Many Hands... ugh Many Hands.
I should've asked this for the first Shadow cover (S146 ; impressive as it was), but why does he get the privilege of getting a solo cover when none of the other characters ever have? Is this hype for the game? have they lefted the Sonic cover rule or is Shadow an exception? or are they trying to prove to us how much he looks like Sonic through hypnotic suggestion because they want as brain-dead and color blind as some of as SA2's characters were?
This cover is really, really, good.
Yeh, I forgot that today the preview was released at Westfield.
I'm looking forward to this issue.
Wow, that cover is amazingly beautiful. Is Shadow's shadow in the cover shaped like some sort of monster? It looks kindof like the biolizard...
EE
How do you people get to preview these issues all these months in advance? 
It realy sucks for those like me who can't even get the current issue in local stores because its a month late for no good reason.:">
Archie comics, along with most every comic company, post solicitations of their comics months in advance, in time to preorder comics, or order comics for a comic store you own. type "(comic company title here) solicitations(month and year desired)" into google and you'll find a bunch of previews.
-----------------------------------------------the-Krayon
Good question on whether Shadow is an exception. This particular issue I think it has to deal with the video game itself. Back when Sonic Heroes was released, Archie had a "Team"-oriented cover which sort of made the comic cover relate in some way to Heroes (though the story--Home--obviously had no similarity to Heroes at all).
I don't need to be a member or subscriber of something to view the previews?
Though I'm usually not one to comment on the comics (for obvious reasons: namely, I don't collect them), you have to admit, that cover strikes me as an obvious trace of official artwork/renders for Shadow the Hedgehog released, like, back during E3. Originality much?
Not only does it look almost exactly like the E3 official artwork, you can almost see where they left the gun out.
At least they haven't posed him on that bloody motorbike.
Could someone tell me of a website that has visual previews of the upcoming issues? I tried following what I was told to type into google, but I couldn't find any good links.
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Though I'm usually not one to comment on the comics (for obvious reasons: namely, I don't collect them), you have to admit, that cover strikes me as an obvious trace of official artwork/renders for Shadow the Hedgehog released, like, back during E3. Originality much?
I'm pretty sure they've mimicked game art for covers before. It's most likely for the sake of it being easily recognizable (game hype + something that immediately visually matches the game = attention grabbed).
Eh another Shadow story. I'm not shocked. A lot of the newer fans of Sonic are huge fans of Shadow and will be harping for his appearance...sort of sad how ignorant some of the new (And extremist) Shadow fans are...some even thought Shadow was in Sonic 2...
ANYWAYS...yea I'm so not buying this comic. And I think Lim is actually getting better...well a little but his style still isn't suited for Sonic...
86th Floor is mentioned in the very first post in this topic, as being the site where preview info was obtained. If you don't want to go there, fansinceissue10, might I suggest Silver Bullet Comicbooks. They're not as fast as 86th Floor but they do have full-color preview images.
Yeesh, as if I need more Shadow shoved in my face then I really need it to be.
~Neo
LOL! I have to agree with Scarecrow on the hell no part. 
According to Ken Penders, this is the first of a three-issue arc centered around Shadow...
Goody, it means I probably won't have to buy another issue until maybe #160. ;p
so... in order to find out his past he has to fight Sonic again? (3rd or 4th time?)
no, frankly he never EVER has to fight with sonic.
I still just love his excuse for the last one.
"i sense you're my enemy, but i know not why!",
then my question to you Shadow the Hedgehog is... WHY THE HELL ARE YOU FIGHTING THEN??? ARE YOU ACTUALLY THAT STUPID OR IS IT JUST KEN PENDERS MAKING YOU THAT WAY!!!???
okay, rant over.
Something tells me that the only good part of this issue is going to be the cover, but I know not why...
...though it may have something to do with Ron Lim.
...and another fight with Shadow.
...and the fact that the best part of the previous Shadow saga
was the covers.
...and Penders' writing. (Which has it's AWESOME moments, but also it's cruddy ones.)
...and the fact that there seems to be "biggest, boldest twists to ever hit the Sonic comic-verse" advertised for every other issue or so.
...and the price increased to $2.25 without me noticing. Unfortunately, the price is on the cover. Dangit.
...but I know not why.
