After the collapse of Archie Sonic, SEGA enlisted Ian Flynn and IDW to create a new comic about the Blue Blur. But while Archie's stab at a Sonic comic suffered from over-the-top absurd plots like Titan Tails, Charmy Bee doing LSD, and Ken Penders' endless echidna recolors, IDW has the opposite problem: it's just plain boring.
The comic takes place after the events of Sonic Forces, with the Resistance — now called The Restoration — trying to rebuild after Eggman and Infinite devastated the world. Needless to say, Eggman resurfaces, and it's up to Sonic and friends to stop him. Eggman's first evil scheme revolves around unleashing the Zombot virus, which turns organic beings into robo-Zombies. This leads to a melodramatic slog that lasts from issue 13 to issue 32. That's nineteen issues spent on a single storyline. Later, we are introduced to the cyborg villains Surge and Kit, who need seven issues and a mini just for their introductory arc.
In addition to the glacial pacing, the comic also never focuses on or leads to anything interesting. The Zombots are defeated when Super Sonic just zaps away their infection, and Surge and Kit never seem remotely a threat to Sonic. Surge at one point practically slips on a banana peel before getting a bucket stuffed on her head in a scene worthy of Looney Tunes. Other riveting arcs include a camping trip and a story about original characters Tangle and Whisper battling a villain with no powers other than shapeshifting and owning a knife.
Speaking of original characters, this comic has way too many, and none of them are interesting. Tangle and her Restoration superiors Lanolin and Jewel are bland and forgettable, Dr. Starline is a diet-version of Dr. Finitevus from Archie, and the other new villains (Surge, Kit, Clutch, Rough, Tumble, and Mimic) are so obviously outclassed by Sonic that it's impossible to be intimidated by them. Worst of all are Belle and Whisper, who spend all their time crying over and over about their lame tragic backstories. You'll wind up wishing that Ian Flynn would take a page from his first few arcs in Archie and massacre half the comic OCs so the game characters can have some time to shine.
But it's not all bad. The game cast fares better given their limited panel-time, with the notable exception of Shadow, who is now a ridiculous parody of Vegeta. The art is gorgeous. However, it's wasted on a comic with no clear focus, no interesting plotlines, no defined setting other than a few cities and broken-down Egg Bases, and way too many spotlight-hogging OCs. If you want to read a ridiculous Sonic comic that has little to do with the games, I suggest you go read Fleetway instead, which is fast-paced and fun, even if it's insane.
ComicBook Too slow!
After the collapse of Archie Sonic, SEGA enlisted Ian Flynn and IDW to create a new comic about the Blue Blur. But while Archie's stab at a Sonic comic suffered from over-the-top absurd plots like Titan Tails, Charmy Bee doing LSD, and Ken Penders' endless echidna recolors, IDW has the opposite problem: it's just plain boring.
The comic takes place after the events of Sonic Forces, with the Resistance — now called The Restoration — trying to rebuild after Eggman and Infinite devastated the world. Needless to say, Eggman resurfaces, and it's up to Sonic and friends to stop him. Eggman's first evil scheme revolves around unleashing the Zombot virus, which turns organic beings into robo-Zombies. This leads to a melodramatic slog that lasts from issue 13 to issue 32. That's nineteen issues spent on a single storyline. Later, we are introduced to the cyborg villains Surge and Kit, who need seven issues and a mini just for their introductory arc.
In addition to the glacial pacing, the comic also never focuses on or leads to anything interesting. The Zombots are defeated when Super Sonic just zaps away their infection, and Surge and Kit never seem remotely a threat to Sonic. Surge at one point practically slips on a banana peel before getting a bucket stuffed on her head in a scene worthy of Looney Tunes. Other riveting arcs include a camping trip and a story about original characters Tangle and Whisper battling a villain with no powers other than shapeshifting and owning a knife.
Speaking of original characters, this comic has way too many, and none of them are interesting. Tangle and her Restoration superiors Lanolin and Jewel are bland and forgettable, Dr. Starline is a diet-version of Dr. Finitevus from Archie, and the other new villains (Surge, Kit, Clutch, Rough, Tumble, and Mimic) are so obviously outclassed by Sonic that it's impossible to be intimidated by them. Worst of all are Belle and Whisper, who spend all their time crying over and over about their lame tragic backstories. You'll wind up wishing that Ian Flynn would take a page from his first few arcs in Archie and massacre half the comic OCs so the game characters can have some time to shine.
But it's not all bad. The game cast fares better given their limited panel-time, with the notable exception of Shadow, who is now a ridiculous parody of Vegeta. The art is gorgeous. However, it's wasted on a comic with no clear focus, no interesting plotlines, no defined setting other than a few cities and broken-down Egg Bases, and way too many spotlight-hogging OCs. If you want to read a ridiculous Sonic comic that has little to do with the games, I suggest you go read Fleetway instead, which is fast-paced and fun, even if it's insane.