|
|
|
|
|
|
|
February 15, 2020 |
|
|
|
|
|
Commentary for February 15, 2020: You know, if I’d planned things better, I could’ve made sure this was the page that went up yesterday. It would’ve been the perfect page for Valentine’s Day. Oh well, maybe next year! (I have literally no idea if it will be new Vol. 1 or new Vol. 2 going up then, mind you.) Anyway, heck! It’s Mina Mongoose! Fun story. When I first tried reading Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog from issue 91 back in 2001, Mina Mongoose had not long been introduced, and I did not like her. I was very much in camp Sonally (Sonic and Sally) back then, mostly because I’d been fond of the SatAM cartoon and made the rookie mistake of thinking the comics and the cartoon were essentially the same world (they weren’t). Since Sonic and Sally had been basically boyfriend and girlfriend in that, I expected them to be that way in the comics, too. What I didn’t know at the time was that Sonic and Sally had never actually gone steady with each other in the comics. Yes, there was romantic tension and the strong implication that they were destined for each other, but it wasn’t until issue 124 (after I'd given up reading the series for the time being) that that they actually said “I love you” to each other... and ten issues later, Sally broke up with Sonic and they didn’t get back together for a long time after that (just in time for Sally to be roboticized, actually). Nineteen years later, I have much more affection for Mina. It’s true, she was created to be a rival to Sally as Sonic’s love interest, and evidently she was supposed to die in issue 124, but a last minute decision was made to spare her. Personally, I’m thankful for that, because I think it would have been simply horrible for her to only exist to have her heart broken and then die. And after that story, she was able to move on and become a rock star, who inspired the good guys with her music. And that’s essentially how I’ve re-imagined Mina Mongoose for Eon’s World. She’s a rock star who got started with her band singing songs to inspire the Freedom Fighters during Eggman’s occupation of the Westside Archipelago, which is why they’re performing in front of the Freedom Fighter insignia (which you may recognise as the Resistance symbol from Sonic Forces). I do not plan to have any romantic tensions between her and Sonic and I don’t think she has super speed in Eon’s World, like she did in Archie Sonic (literally just so could have more in common with Sonic). Oh yes, if you ever watched Sonic Underground, you may recognise the lyrics that Mina is singing. Sonic Underground was not the best show, but it had its charm and some of those songs were so catchy I can remember them even now and I haven’t watched that show in at least twelve years. So, Mina Mongoose and the Forget-Me-Knots will most likely always be depicted singing songs from Sonic Underground. Also, I did think of having the Forget-Me-Knots be the same rabbit, monkey, and chicken that formed the rest of the band with Mina in Archie Sonic (ostensibly from early concept art for the original Sonic game), but I decided I wanted to craft some OC's for it. Some of them may even go on to do other things in later stories. Wow, that’s a lot of talk about the first freakin’ panel... then again, Eon and Silky do go on to talk about Mina for the rest of the page, so I guess it’s fair. But what I really wanted to do with this page, aside from establishing Mina as a character who exists in Eon’s World, was to have a conversation about sexuality and open relationships. Silky has always been canonically bisexual, but it has never been said anywhere in the actual pages of Eon’s World. Some might object that it doesn’t need to be said if it’s not relevant to the plot, but I take issue with that. If you don’t say or show that a character is some flavour of queer, it will generally be assumed that they’re not. So while it may seem a little ham-handed to have Silky just drop into the conversation that she is bisexual, it’s actually important for queer representation in fiction. Moreover, I very much wanted to include the words “gay”, “bisexual”, and “polyamory” in the actual text. Because even in fiction that has characters to whom any of these words apply, often they go unspoken. I love Steven Universe, for instance; it is easily the finest cartoon I have ever watched. But even though it features characters who are gay, bisexual, or non-binary, those words are never spoken in the show. As I have set out to make Eon’s World gayer, having Eon and Silky talking and using those words was vital to me. Expect more of this in both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Oh yeah, this is probably the only time you’ll really see Big the Cat (in the background of panel 2). It’s not that I don’t like him, it’s just... Okay, I don’t really like him that much; even Ian Flynn’s masterful writing never really brought me round to the guy, like it did for Shadow and Silver. But even so, I just don’t have a use for him in Eon’s World. I figure after Sonic Adventure, he went back to his hut in the Mystic Ruins with Froggy and carried on living a peaceful life of fishing. But I wanted some recognisable characters in the background of that shot, so I included him and Amy and also an OC of mine who will become very important... a few years from now. Credits: Big the Cat sprites by CylentNight. |
|
|
Eon's World is a fan comic created by Bethany Turner. All characters are copyright
©
to their respective creators. The contents of this site are not
public domain material and should not be edited, distributed, or
otherwise used without first obtaining permission from
Bethany Turner. |
|
