I’m back for the final issue in IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome mini-series, written by Ian Flynn with art by Thomas Rothlisberger. It’s certainly taken a while, but between this miniseries and the concurrent plot running over in the main Sonic book, we’re finally a mere breath away from the long-awaited confrontation between Sonic, Tails, Surge and Kit. Lets hop right into this issue and see how this prepares us for the big milestone #50 next time.
SPOILERS AHEAD for Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome #4!
The story is what you’d expect based on the last issue of this mini, with Starline’s plan coming to fruition. We see the culmination of all his careful trial runs as they run it again but for real this time, successfully taking over all of Dr. Eggman’s forces as our heroes rush in to confront the villains for next time. Of course the dark dynamic duo is still playing their long con with usurping Starline’s plan at the last minute, but that’s likely to come into play in the milestone issue. Overall, it’s a good setup with plenty of fun bits along the way, most especially the brief fight between Surge and Metal Sonic, a nice teaser for what we can expect when she goes up against the real thing next time.
IDW Publishing
Character work is a high point, as it tends to be with Flynn at the helm. Surge and Kit already feel like exceptionally well-rounded characters despite only existing within this miniseries at this point, and by this issue we’re already very familiar with their quirks, likes and dislikes enough to enjoy seeing them play off each other and others. Surge’s dialogue with Metal Sonic was particularly illuminating to how she views herself, as a superior “replacement” Sonic, much like how Metal himself is often characterized. Seeing her and Kit also working in better sync than in their previous trial runs was interesting, indicating that they’ve finally organically begun to gel with each other beyond what was programmed into them. Starline gets a bit too, but he’s a backseater in this one for the most part. We do get a flashback to his time with Eggman, showing what he’s learned from the good Robotnik’s eccentricities and how he believes he’s refined them to a science. That right there is also just a great way to show the difference between their approaches to similar problems, emphasizing what makes them both interesting villains in their own right.
IDW Publishing
The art by Rothlisberger is top notch and extremely expressive. Surge in particular has a great wide array of faces that never fails to show what she’s thinking, with Kit’s body language being similarly varied but a bit more controlled, showing the difference in their characters without sacrificing any expressive qualities. The page layouts also do a great job of showing their fighting styles, and the combat in general has a great kinetic feel to it. I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up the obvious visual reference to the Sonic OVA from the ’90s when Surge throws down with Metal (two Sonic doppelgangers clashing in a burst of speed – strange, isn’t it?). Absolutely top tier nod that really put a smile on my face. There are other subtle references to little details from some various Sonic games I also noticed, but at that point I’d just be gushing over every little thing, so I’ll just say go see if you can notice any for yourself.
IDW Publishing
I really liked this issue, and this Imposter Syndrome as a whole. It really took very little to endear me to these new villain characters — they’ve been given such a great injection of charm and personality in their writing and designs that made me fall in love with them right away. Obviously the response from other fans has been great too, so I don’t need to tell everybody who worked on this mini that they did a great job. But they did do a great job, and this whole thing has me super pumped to read Sonic #50 and see this all culminate into an unforgettable showdown. Great art, great writing, great everything. Hats off to all of you that worked on this series.
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