Starting last September, IDW began republishing their long-running Sonic the Hedgehog run with the On the Go trades, taking full advantage of the continuity from many of the video games, including some of the obscure handheld titles. Depending on how well-versed you are in the Sonic lore, the IDW series is a fun entry point to get into the comic adventures of the iconic blue speedster.
Picking up where the first volume left off, Dr. Eggman is back to his old evil self after briefly losing his memory and ended up in a remote village where he had taken on the more friendly moniker of Mr. Tinker. Allied with Starline, a platypus scientist who admires him, Eggman hatches a new scheme involving the Metal Virus, which turns organic life into mindless robots dubbed “zombots”.
Although it was an interesting dynamic seeing an amnesiac and friendly Eggman interacting with the cast – weirdly, Joshua Williamson would do something similar with Lex Luthor during his ongoing Superman run – that wasn’t going to last long. With the Metal Virus, which is not far off from Marvel’s Techno-Organic Virus, writer Ian Flynn cements how evil Eggman is with his determination to infect the entire world, to the point that even Starline can see the unwieldy nature of this new weapon.
IDW
As before, Flynn sticks to the formula that feels true to a classic Sonic gaming scenario where our titular hero speeds from one town to the next, resolving some robotic conflict with the help of one of his friends, whether it is Tails or Silver. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and that includes the recurring appearance of the skunks Rough and Tumble, who are a fun double act that are always getting their ass kicked by Sonic and others.
While there is a tendency to cram as many characters as possible in the story, Flynn still nails the spot-on characterization, particularly Sonic who is all about the quips but never ignores the danger of his arch-nemesis, even as he is succumbing to the Metal Virus. However, the new characters leave a greater impression as seen in the annual, which showcases multiple short stories such as the Sonic Fan Club. The standouts are Tangle the Lemur and Whisper the Wolf, both have their own four-issue miniseries as they try to apprehend Whisper’s former comrade turned criminal Mimic. While the comic overall never gets too dark, since this is aimed at a younger readership, one has to appreciate Flynn for bringing some emotional weight to these cutesy furry characters that are experiencing loss and trauma.
With a wide range of artists including Tracy Yardley, Evan Stanley and Jack Lawrence, they all maintain those simple character designs that have defined Sonic and his world but also showing fresh and diverse designs as seen in Tangle, Whisper and my personal favorite being Mimic, who is quite the sinister octopus. You still get colorful and kinetic action sequences that showcase Sonic’s blue speed and Amy Rose’s skills with a hammer, but there is also an addition of the zombots where the infected cutesy animals are given this metallic sheen which is a refreshing presentation of zombification that isn’t too upsetting the kiddies.
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