- [Joel] It's that special time the weekend everybody.
It's time for another installment of Super Suits,
the internet comic book show that tries to untangle
these strange wonderful and always interesting
world of superhero and comic-book lawsuits.
Now if you're a frequent viewer of the show,
first off thank you, but also you may remember
that back in July we tackled a case involving comic books
and their connection to professional wrestling.
Well, in this episode I decided it might be fun
to cover a topic wherein we look at the connection
between the world of comics and the world of video games
And the very best part is this case
was actually submitted to us by a fan,
so there you go I totally read the comments and suggestions.
So, with that in mind. grab yourself some gold rings
and a chili dog because today we're going to be talking
about everyone's favorite super fast blue hedgehog, Sonic.
Now I should probably state right up front,
I am not a Sonic expert but as with everything I do,
I'm going to try and approach this video
with all the same academic respect I do everything else.
Now of course that's just me but if my editor
wanted to splice in some hilariously bad Sonic R
or some cringey Sonic original characters,
well that's just gonna be up to him, I mean you know,
I gotta do me he's gotta do him, right?
So you know, good good, let's move on.
Now at the center of this particular super suit
is this man right here, Ken Penders.
Penders is a comic book artist and illustrator
who has worked on a number of comic properties,
including the Atom and even Conan the Barbarian
but by far he is best known for his work
on the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comics.
Oh yes, the Archie comics.
Those comics that gets sold in grocery stores
and drugstores and as such, have a bigger following
than you might think because they're actually somewhere
where new fans can buy them,
not hidden away in special shops.
But hey you know what, that's a rant for another day.
Penders began writing Sonic in 1994, with issue 12
and would stay on the book until issue 159 in 2006.
Now in my research I found out that the Sonic fan base
is pretty split as to the quality of his work.
Some feeling that he leaned much too hard on melodrama
and introducing one too many new characters that
turned out to be extended family members,
connected in one way or another to either Sonic or Knuckles.
However, it is still hard to deny
that the man had a very large impact on the Sonic comics
and, jeez I never thought I would say these words,
but Sonic Extended Universe.
So what went wrong, how did Penders
and the powers-that-be sour on one another?
Well, most believe that it all happened
with the release of 2008's DS Sonic game,
entitled Sonic Chronicles, the Dark Brotherhood.
Not to be confused with the Dark Brotherhood
from the Elder Scrolls series
but seriously, how cool a crossover with that be.
The game featured a villainous group,
called the Nocturnus Clan.
They were a group of technically advanced echidnas,
aka that race that Knuckles is, in case you didn't know.
Speaking of Knuckles, it was the Knuckles Clan
that defeated them before banishing them
to another dimension, called the Twilight Cage.
Keep this in mind, this will be important later.
Penders felt the Nocturnus clan was far too similar
to the Dark Legion, a group of technically advanced echidnas
who he created for the comic-book.
Keep in mind, these guys too were also defeated
by Knuckles ancestors' and banish to another dimension,
called, wait for it, wait for it, the Twilight Cage.
And jeez, you know the more I think of the Twilight Cage,
the more horrible images come to my mind.
It's like a small cell where they force you
to read Stephenie Meyer's books all day.
As you can probably understand,
the writer felt that his intellectual property
was being raided by SEGA and he was not seeing
so much as a penny for all his hard work.
By 2009, Penders saw fit to begin copyrighting
various stories, characters and pieces of artwork
that he created for the Archie comics series.
By the year 2010, the US Copyright Office
would recognize his claims.
Penders had hoped that this will help strengthen
his legal battle in 2011 against both SEGA and EA games
for the alleged copyright infringement,
pertaining to the Sonic Chronicles game.
Luck would seem was not on his side though
as the initial case was dismissed without prejudice
by September of that same year.
But that wouldn't stop the Penders camp
from pursuing the lawsuit at least three more times.
Eventually, things would end up in something of a stalemate
with the statue of limitations becoming a major factor
in allowing Penders to resubmit his case.
As you can imagine kicking up such a fuss meant that
his bosses over at Archie comics eventually turned around
and sued him trying to wrestle control of the book
and the characters that he created away from him.
It all got very heated very quickly.
Penders was even quoted as saying he would use
every legal means at his disposal
to protect and preserve his works.
By the end of it all, SEGA and Archie comics
more or less said, you know what,
you want these characters so bad, you can have them.
So, they introduced a story concept,
called the Second Genesis Wave,
which was basically just a big fancy Sonic version
of a crisis on Infinite Earths style scenario
that saw the entirety of the Sonic comic books world
rearranged to no longer feature any character
created by Penders.
And this was no small feat either.
The dude had worked on the book for so long and had a habit
of introducing long-lost secret family members,
so to scorch earth the whole thing like they did,
was no small task but they did it.
And I mean, hey, Beats paying royalties
to a creator you were mad at.
I mean, now you can finally afford
that third golden shark tank bar you've always wanted.
But the story didn't end there.
In December 2011, Penders announced that he planned
to begin work on the solo adventures of Laura Su,
a character that he created for the Sonic Archie comics,
of whom he now owned lock stock and smoking barrel.
Of course the powers-that-be still owned
the race of a echidna, so to combat this,
Penders just moved some letters
and tweaked the pronunciation
and just call them echidnas anyway.
Oh, what a tricksy hobbit he is.
FYI, in my research I discovered the general consensus
on that solo work is that it wasn't very good.
You really get the feeling that the fan base
soured on Penders pretty quickly during his legal battles.
I mean, plenty of them still blame him
for uprooting the universe and lore
that they had come to enjoy.
And you know, when I sit here and think about it,
it's kinda funny whenever Marvel
or DC shake up their continuity,
there really is never one person to point the finger at
and yet here they're totally was.
So, whatever happened to Penders?
Well as early as October of 2015,
the dude spoke up again on his social media feeds
about the possibility of launching yet another lawsuit
against Archie comics and SEGA.
Now, nothing has come of this as of yet in 2016
but I get the funny blue furry feeling
that this is one super suit that is far from over.
So there you have it another case closed
by the very little litigious Caped Joel.
And all in a speedy fashion too.
I hope you liked the episode and as always,
for more educational comic book videos
be sure to subscribe to NerdSync.
Or if you want to see what I'm up to, by all means,
come check out the Caped Joel channel.
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I swear it feels just as good.