Back again with another Sonic the Hedgehog review in IDW’s ongoing series! I’ve got TWO Sonic reviews today, so if you’re here from the 900th Adventure special, hello! And if you haven’t read that review yet, well, go check that out once you’re done here. This issue of the main series retains last issue‘s creative team for the most part: it’s written and drawn by Evan Stanley with coloring by Valentina Pinto, and a backup by Ian Flynn and Mauro Fonseca.
This issue picks up right where we left off as Silver and Whisper try to expose Mimic, who is trying to infiltrate the new “Diamond Cutters” team that just formed last arc. I have a lot of praise for how the characters are written here – they are mostly believable in how Mimic manages to manipulate and trick them into being thrown off his trail. It doesn’t treat anybody like a moron for buying into his machinations, which is appreciated. Though I do think it was a tad much to have Whisper thrown off the scent as intensely as she was, especially right after she made a very confident claim to understand all his “tells.” I’m not saying she can’t be wrong, but it does feel a bit silly to have to be so absolutely stone cold confident to breaking down in tears and fully accepting she was wrong half a scene later. Again, I understand the reasoning in story, but that part I found to just be the slightest bit of an immersion breaker. Overall, everybody here is still written well and I understand the need for events to have occurred the way they did, so no harm no foul if the setup leads to some good payoff.
IDW Publishing
The story over in the Flynn written backup was also pretty good! It kind of feels like a good thematic answer to how down Silver feels by the end of the Stanley story, even if those events aren’t directly brought up while events in previous Annuals are. Flynn really leans hard on the chemistry between Blaze and Silver here as a duo, something Sega hasn’t been willing to bring up almost at all since the infamous Sonic ’06 paired them up for the first time. It’s pretty cool to see, and it’s a good attempt to bridge the gap between the “princess from another dimension” backstory for Blaze and her friendship with the future-faring hedgehog. Flynn frames them both as fishes out of water from different ponds, so to speak. It’s a really good spin on the dynamic, their friendship feels believable, and I like that by the end they sort of “officially” team up as partners.
IDW Publishing
The art for both stories in this issue is excellent, but that’s par for the course with Sonic by now. There’s not much to say in that regard I haven’t already a dozen times over in these reviews, so just take my word for it. They’re good artists, yeah? Honestly, I can only think of one instance I’ve ever had to criticize the art, and that was an issue that was very obviously under some crunch. If that is the case here (which I would have expected given the 900th Special‘s release today too) it’s unnoticeable in how the art turned out. Everything looks good and expressive like you’d expect from the Sonic comics by now. Also, the Always Sunny reference on the cover is just a classic.
IDW Publishing
I really liked this issue, though I will say I liked the backup story a bit more than the main attraction. Neither story is better than the other, I’d say – in fact, they complement each other well, but the main story is the only one I felt the need to nitpick a bit, so take from that what you will. They’re both still GOOD though, don’t make any mistakes there, and I’m pretty excited to see what they’re setting up for the future of the book. Well, if you haven’t, go check out this book and the 900th Adventure Special! They’re both way past cool.
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