Sonic the Hedgehog 2: The Official Movie Pre-Quill

Sonic the Hedgehog 2: The Official Movie Pre-Quill

Publication Date: March 30th, 2022

When the "Sonic the Hedgehog" was first announced in 2014, I was skeptical of it ever making it to the big screen. All sorts of dumbass adaptations and projects get announced in Hollywood every day. Most of them never make it to theaters. When the movie made it out of Development Hell, into active production and before real movie cameras, I was still skeptical. I had dreamed about a "Sonic" movie for ages but never expected a real motion picture to live up to my half-mad imaginings. When that disastrous first trailer debuted, it seemed the video game movie curse had struck again and the "Sonic" film was doomed before it even came out.

Through all of this, the idea of a sequel never struck me as a probable proposition. Hollywood is franchise hungry but I have a "let's wait and see how the first one turns out" attitude towards these things. By some fucking miracle and extensive effects reworking, the first "Sonic" movie was actually fairly entertaining. Moreover, it made a lot of money. And now Paramount Studios is going all in on "Sonic." The sequel comes out next week. They've already announced a third film and a "Knuckles" spin-off streaming series. While the specific vision of a "Sonic" movie trilogy that existed in my head was never going to come to life, my dream of "Sonic" being an honest-to-God cinematic universe has somehow come to pass. What a time to be alive.

The release of a big budget sequel, that the studio is pinning a lot of future success on, brings with it a plethora of tie-in merchandise. There's toys, Happy Meals, VTubing experiments, and even a breakfast cereal. Most intriguing of all is the idea of a comic book tie-in. "Sonic" has a rich history in comics, as anyone reading this blog knows. IDW, the current publisher of "Sonic" comics, practically specializes in film and television tie-ins. So I was pleasantly surprised, but not shocked, when IDW announced a one-shot special to proceed the release of "Sonic the Hedgehog 2." You know the "Sonic" Movie Universe is the real deal when comic books expanding on its lore are coming out.

Much like the annuals that IDW has published in the past — which this "pre-quill" seems to be taking the place of this year — a selection of stories are included. The first of the five tales is "Hedgehog Day Afternoon," which involves a bored Sonic foiling a bank robbing plot... Which soon reveals a connection to the exiled Dr. Robotnik. The second story, "The Secret of My Distress" concerns Robotnik's minion, Agent Stone, following his boss' ruthless game plan to take over a humble coffee shop. "Always Bet on Red" follows Knuckles traversing the universe, ending up on a wacky casino world, and fighting a giant monster. "Two for the Road" has Tails also traveling through various "zones," trying to locate Sonic and being pursued by a mysterious force. Lastly, "Mushroom with a View" picks up shortly after the end of the movie and depicts some of Robotnik's adventures on the mushroom world he was stranded on.

All of these stories were plotted by Kiel Phegley, who previously wrote the novelization of the first movie as well as some other "Sonic" related books. Phegley has done a pretty good job at replicating the tone and feel of the film. This comic is surprisingly funny! This is most notable in the first story, where Phegley accurately recreates the voice of Ben Schwartz' quipping Sonic. He even makes several passing references to the hedgehog's loneliness, continuing to be the defining trait of Movie Sonic. His search for a good superhero codename and his ADHD-driven mischief he gets up to in Green Hills are all pretty funny. The story's antagonists, a group of scheming bank robbers led by a sardonic redhead named Lindsey, even gets a few funny lines. Her begging Sonic to shut up at the end of the story surprisingly made me chuckle.

Of all the stories in this book, "Hedgehog Day Afternoon" feels the most like it could be a scene in the actual sequel. It has pretty big action beats, when the robbers use a glove that belonged to Robotnik to activate some of his drones. Sonic saves the day with his typical speed and quick thinking, in a fairly clever manner. The story is also the only one in the book to give a sizable role to Tom, who helps out after hearing about the robbery while on a fishing trip with goofy Wade. He even gets involved in the action, swatting an Egg Drone with his fishing rod in a fashion that would make Big the Cat proud. This one ties into the first movie in a logical way, Robotnik leaving lots of exploitable tech lying around being a reasonable enough assumption. It's fleet-footed, funny, and entertaining and that's really all I can hope for from the "Sonic" movies.

Despite only having a few minutes of screen time in the first movie, Lee Majdoub's Agent Stone quickly became a fan favorite. (And, of course, a certain breed of fan immediately began to ship him and Robotnik.) The sequel looks to capitalize on that. Or at least this comic does. There's a certain degree of absurd comedy here, of Stone using supervillain tactics to upend the hierarchy of a humble coffee shop. Robotnik's grandiose monologue, which Stone replicates, is repeatedly contrasted against the inanity of his coworkers. His new boss is literally named "Karen." His assistant manager repeatedly emphasizes how little compensation is to be expected at this job. A coworker asks him to cover for her despite barely knowing him. Probably the funniest interaction occurs when another coworker asks Stone if he wants to hear his movie review podcast, Stone fires back with some sinister supervillain prattle, and the guy deadpans "That's a really weird thing to say, dude."

If nothing else, this amusing but fairly goofy story does develop Agent Stone as a character more. From the first movie, all we really know about the guy is that he's totally devoted to Robotnik and that he makes a mean goat milk latte. The story expands on that, as coffee still seems to be his main hobby but obsessing over Robotnik's teachings is his real passion. In fact, Stone's action come off as rather ruthless here. He frames Karen for money laundering, trotting her off to jail and using her one phone call to taunt her. The assistant manager gets dragged off by Egg Drones to parts unknown. Is... is that guy dead now? I kind of doubt Stone's job in a coffee shop will be all the important to the sequel's plot but, if nothing else, it paints a picture of Robotnik's sidekick as just as dangerous as he is. (And also furthers my suspicion that the character was inspired by scheming villainous sidekicks like Snively or Starline.)

The two middle stories are, I suspect, the ones that will be most interesting to hardcore Sonic nerds. "Always Bet on Red" is our first real look at the movie-verse version of Knuckles. And it's already apparent that he's quite different from other takes on the echidna. There's no mention of Angel Island or Chaos Emeralds. Instead, Knuckles is depicted as traveling from world to world with the same warp ring technology Sonic used in the first movie. He's still the last echidna and a treasure hunter of sorts but his primary goal seems to be to locate Sonic, for vaguely defined reasons. He also has weird glow-y, red energy punching powers, not unlike Sonic's electric blue running powers. It's already very clear that the "Sonic" movies are putting their own spin(dash) on "Sonic" lore. I'm still not sure how I feel about these changes but at least the movie is harkening back to Knuckles' original characterization: A gruff and angry loner who is driven by circumstances to act rashly, a mysterious past always being hinted at. In fact, this might be the surliest take on Knuckles that I've seen in a while, after so many years of him mostly functioning as comic relief. 

Honestly, world-building might be the main goal of this story. There's not much to the plot, which has Knuckles being snagged by some weird alien dudes, dropped into a fight with a giant lobster monster in a casino, and quickly punching it out. It's certainly a far more sci-fi orientated version of "Sonic" lore than what we are used to seeing. Yet there's still the occasional shoutout. The casino is called the Casino Nights Zone. It's populated mostly by furry humanoid cartoon animals. Vector and Espio have cameos. Mostly, though this is an introduction to the movie take on Knux and I guess it does its job in that regard. I wish we got a little more character development, a little more insight into his goals and his past, and less random giant space crabs. It also ends a little abruptly. But I guess all of the important stuff is being saved for the actual movie. 

We've already technically met Movie Tails, thanks to the end credits teaser of the first film, but "Two for the Road" feels like a more thorough introduction. Tails is also shown leaping around the galaxy through warp rings and doggedly pursuing Sonic. Yet he seems to be a little closer to the Tails we know than what we glimpsed of Knuckles in the last story. He's still an admirer of Sonic, treating Longclaw's shack as sacred ground and excitedly talking about Sonic's powers. He wants to find the hedgehog not just to save the world but also because he's a fan. He's also still the whiz kid we expect from Tails, creating a wacky device that can track people through the portals. This story also has more shout-outs to the classic games, with stopovers in the Marble Zone, Spring Yard, Aquatic Ruins, and Hilltop Zone. Which seems to confirm that all these places exist in the movie canon. (There's also a cameo from Rava the Destroyer, the lizard guy cut from the first movie. So even this early on, the movie "Sonic" verse is developing its own in-jokes.)

Mostly, this story works for a little better than the last one because it has more narrative drive. Knuckles getting abducted and fighting a monster was obviously just a detour on his mission. This story has Tails directly on his way to his cameo in the first film. He's being pursued, adding some tension and making the entire story a chase scene of sorts. There's a lot of talk of "Chaos Energy," furthering my speculation that the movie versions of Sonic and Knuckles get their powers from the Chaos Emeralds. Or may even be walking Chaos Emeralds themselves. So this one does a good job of whetting my appetite for the movie and getting me excited to see Tails on-screen, even if it also ends suddenly. Also, Longclaw died at some point. R.I.P. Owl Mom. 

The last story was, supposedly, heavily suggested by Jim Carrey himself, showing that the rubber faced comedian really must be invested in playing Robotnik. "Mushroom with a View" returns to the goofy, action packed tone of the first story in this collection. It's simply a tale of Robotnik monologing to himself in glorious fashion while eating magic mushrooms and fighting off some alien critters. The mad scientist's hammy, egotistic way of referring to himself and everything around him makes for an amusing read. The appearance of biting little mushroom creatures is kind of random but it concludes on a nicely fiery note. Stories like these is really what I expected from this comic, little side stories that won't spoil the movie's events but does fill the gap between the films a little bit. Watching Carrey-botnik rant and fight aliens is an entertaining way to spend five pages.

While the entire comic is written by one dude, who is a newcomer to IDW's "Sonic" line, the slate of artists contain familiar names. Adam Bryce Thomas draws the first story, Tracy Yardley penciled the second and fifth, with Evan Stanley handling the middle two. Since the movies are so very different visually to the usual "Sonic" settings, on account of starring actual human beings and being filmed on Earth, there were some challenges. Sonic looks great in Thomas' story and the action scene have the sense of motion you've come to expect from him. The humans are drawn in an animesque style that is a little distracting at times. Lindsey or the little beat cop we meet are cute but Tom does not especially look like James Marsden. 

Yardley is a lot better at adapting his cartoony style to real people. His art in the second story is expressive and fun while still being grounded. On the last story, he manages to make Robotnik resemble Jim Carrey while still having him look like a Tracy Yardley drawing. (Though the mushroom monsters are notably a little more exaggerated than everything else in the story.) Stanley's stories don't feature any humanoids, so it doesn't have that problem. Her artwork looks the most like your typical "Sonic" comic, if a little more detailed and realistic in terms of environments. And that works just fine for me. 

Ultimately, the "Sonic 2: Official Movie Pre-Quill" is about the fun little bonus I expected it to be. It gives us a peek at the new introductions the sequel will be making, while expanding on the movie universe's lore a little bit. It also doesn't give too much away, making the stories feel a little frustratingly thin at times. That's probably why the three tales devoted to characters from the first movie just doin' stuff work a best for me. Still, this comic made me laugh, kept me entertained, is consistent with the depictions from the first film, and successfully got me hyped to see the sequel. I think that means it did its job. Honestly, assuming part two doesn't totally flop and the Sonic Cinematic Universe is going to be a real thing going forward, I'd be really interested in seeing IDW do more comics set in this world. It's fun to see "Sonic" comics actually interact with other parts of the franchise, rather than being confined to their own little ghetto, for once. [7/10]