Sonic the Hedgehog #25 brings us back to a classic location from Sonic Adventure: The Floating Island.
We open up with Knuckles (the best one) taking a break from his treasure hunting duties to guard the Master Emerald. Sonic touches down near him, covered in what looks like silver goo. Backing up for a second here: Dr. Eggman had created a techno-organic virus that would infect its host and mutate them into zombie robots, also known as “Zombots.” Sonic was recently infected, and has been running nonstop to keep the virus from spreading through his body.
Sonic and company are not the only ones who are interested in stopping the metal virus. Dr. Eggman and Dr. Starline are also on the same page when they realize that the virus is spreading too quickly and is no longer containable. Good one, guys!
This leads to a big rift between these two mad scientists, as they continue to argue throughout the issue on how to handle the experiment. It’s actually nice to see two villains be evil in different ways. It’s like watching them have a pissing contest of which ridiculously elaborate evil plan is the most effective (and cost efficient).
Dr. Starline chooses to take a more drastic route, and summons the Deadly Six. For those of you new to the Sonic franchise, these were the villains from the short-lived Sonic Lost World. While they’re fun villains, it actually makes no sense for Dr. Starline to summon them to take care of the zombie infection. These guys are basically the seven deadly sins. There is no good coming from this situation, and you would think a super scientist would recognize that.
Of course this goes awry immediately because the Deadly Six get their hands on a chaos emerald, then take over Eggman’s army of robots, and tear off to destroy the world. I was expecting a comedic take on the situation a la Sonic Boom, where Dr. Starline would turning around, shrugging, being like “Whoopsie!”
We don’t get that comedy act, but instead Rouge the Bat, who has been hiding in the vents of Dr. Eggman’s ship for days. Apparently she had planned to snatch the Chaos Emeralds herself, but instead has been busy purchasing rental space in Eggman’s ship for days. It’s an awkward moment in the writing, especially because the real reason for her to be there is to confirm that Dr. Eggman and Dr. Starline are telling the truth when they go to Sonic for help.
They aren’t the only ones who show up – Silver the Hedgehog stumbles out of the bushes as well. In a goth monotone, he talks about how his future has already been turned to metal. He concludes that the doom of his future is caused by his failures of today. Turn down the melodrama just smidge, Silver.
Dr. Eggman proposes using Dr. Starline’s Warp Topaz to somehow transport the infection out of existence. Like I said earlier, these mad scientists aren’t very smart. We see them squabble again, and eventually Eggman shoves Starline into one of his own portals.
Meanwhile, Amy Rose has taken it upon herself to pull out her smartphone and call in Babylon Rogues to come help fight and steal back the Chaos Emeralds.
The final shot is actually a cool one, in which we see almost the entire remaining cast of Sonic the Hedgehog stagger toward the us, infected with the Zombot Virus. Vector, Big the Cat, Shadow, Cream, Charmy… You name it. They are all there — and super zombified!
Every character from almost every Sonic the Hedgehog game is in this issue. It’s to the point where it’s too many. Sonic the Hedgehog has already been doing a poor job at connecting their games together. It’s not clear what the rules of their universe are or what locations are the same. It makes it difficult to read, and the characters are then unbelievable.
This new Sonic the Hedgehog comic may be bright and pretty, but it still lacks the heart of the original run, even on its 25th issue.
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