Sonic the Hedgehog: Scrapnik Island: Issue 2

Sonic the Hedgehog: Scrapnik Island: Issue 2

Publication Date: November 16th, 2022

The last quarter of 2022 might be the busiest time for the "Sonic" franchise in quite a while. "Sonic Frontiers," the first mainline game in the series in five years, released earlier in the month. With it came a number of promotional tie-ins. (Which I'm not quite done talking about yet, by the way.) Meanwhile, the promotional machine for the new cartoon, "Sonic Prime," is ramping up ahead of its December 16th Netflix drop. That new trailer was pretty swanky, wasn't it? 

Perhaps seeing how the entire franchise is accelerating, IDW is double-stuffing the comic end of things this month too. In addition to the issue I'm here to discuss today, the second installment of the "Scrapnik Island" series, they also released a special one-shot celebrating Tails' 30th anniversary on the same day. There's a new issue of the regular series coming next month too! Let me tell you, friends, "Sonic" fans are eating supper right now. I guess this is what happens when a long-running series goes from being a laughingstock to a blockbuster film series. 

After a short prologue showing how E-117 Sigma washed up on the titular island, we get back to the present. The friendly locals have repaired the Tornado save for one important part that makes the entire plane work. However, they might be able to locate the missing part inside the Death Egg. Sonic, Sigma and the reformed Mecha Sonic journey into the ruins of the fallen satellite. As they travel inside, they are attacked by a scrapped together version of "Sonic Advance's" Mecha Knuckles. Even after defeating him, the danger is far from over for our heroes. 

The main appeal of the desert island genre is that it thrusts ordinary people into an incredible situation that pushes them to their limits, forcing them to use human ingenuity and the sheer will to survive in order to make it out alive. It asks the question of whether we, as people raised in civilization, could survive if all of that was pulled away. Yet there's also a second, secret aspect to the genre that also makes it such an evergreen style of story. Leaving behind all the complications of modern life is also appealing. Once you get through the threat of starving to death or exposure to the elements, it's even kind of cozy. Who wouldn't want to completely start over in paradise? 

And so we see some of that in the first few pages of "Scrapnik Island's" second volume. Tails builds a translator for the Scrapniks while Sonic chills in a lawn chair on the beach. These robots have made their own little community, away from the rest of the world, where they won't be judged or persecuted. They are awfully friendly, as they all rush to say hi to Sonic the minute he can understand them. We see that these machines are growing, almost becoming human. They have hopes and dreams of making it back to civilization. This is represented in a sunflower that Mecha Sonic obsessively tends to. I don't know if I'd want to live on Scrapnik Island but maybe it wouldn't be so bad to visit. It seems... Nice. 

It's a testament to the "Sonic" franchise's belief in second chances – an outgrow of the shonen action genre's tendency to redeem past villains – that a bunch of minor background enemies can grow into peaceful bohemians. Sigma even says that they have evolve past Eggman's programming for them. It's not just the once murderous robots that can turn into better people. Sensing the tension between them, Sonic outright asks Mecha Sonic to let bygones be bygones. That's something I like about Sonic. He's always willing to forgive and forget. It's a nice, quiet, character-driven moment to insert into the middle of the book. 

It, of course, proceeds a big action set piece. Once Mecha Knuckles emerges on the scene, the rest of this issue is predominantly focused on a fight scene. Yet even that is more character driven than I expected. While the Mecha Sonic and Knuckles are battling it out, we get a glimpse inside the tall metal hedgehog's brain. And this is where issue 2 of "Scrapnik Island" makes a surprising turn. Remember how I expressed disappointment last time that this horror-tinged mini-series was leaving the creepy stuff behind after the first issue? Turns out that's not exactly true. Mecha Sonic's warped perception of reality, which shows past defeats and faces intruding on the present in glitchy ways, pushes us into the realm of psychological horror. Honestly, some of the pages are so vividly twisted they might be too scary for really young readers. 

Something else is surprising about this too: Mecha Sonic, just another boss battle up until this point, is emerging as this mini-series' most interesting character. I like the detail of him tending to the sunflower. It shows that this killer robot has really soften. Yet the peek inside his fractured brain is really compelling. His fight with Mecha Knuckles triggers his memory of his final fight with his organic counterpart back in "Sonic 3 & Knuckles." His recollection of Eggman activating him, assigning him the role of a killer, and Sonic's mocking battle banter all blend together. In particular, the memory of Knuckles delivering a killing blow to the robot haunts him. It's no wonder he freaks out a little after this. 

In fact, the entire sequence plays a lot like a PTSD flashback. Suggesting an interesting idea that I hadn't considered before: Eggman's machines are just conscious enough to be aware of their own mortality. This means that when Sonic bobs them on the head and makes them go boom... Conscious things are being murdered. And if they survive such an encounter, the trauma of that memory is going to live with them. That's a really compelling idea to introduce into a series where robots are usually nothing but easily disposed of mooks. If artificial intelligence really is intelligent, that means it's prone to some of the same mental conditions humanity can fall prey to. 

There's obviously some psychological depth to this issue that I really dug. Yet this is simply a well written comic structurally too. Mecha Sonic glitching out and turning on fleshy Sonic provides a nice twist. Up to this point, this mini-series has advertised Mecha Knuckles as the story's main antagonist. He's on the cover of this issue, got a big reveal last time, and has by far the flashiest design of all the new robots. (Or "new" robots.) This issue also reveals the Mecha Knuckles has a simplistic programming to protect the Death Egg. He's not a complicated, scheming robot. This makes it unlikely to me that he's going to be the main baddie. It really seems like Mecha Knuckles was simply a decoy villain and that Mecha Sonic, haunted by his memories and damaged processors, is going to be the main antagonist here. Which is far more compelling anyway, seeing as how Mecha Sonic's desire to be more than destructive has been established now. 

Maybe I'm reading this wrong and that's not where "Scrapnik Island" is headed. I've been wrong before. Either way, one thing is for certain: This is a gorgeous comic book. Jack Lawrence's pencils and Nathalie Fourdraine's colors combine to create one of the most distinctive looking "Sonic" comics I've ever read. The artwork is so good that it does most of the narrative heavy lifting throughout this issue. The opening flashback, showing how Sigma came to reside on Scrapnik Island, plays out totally without word balloons but never lacks for emotional or meaning. The Mechas never talk at all yet their feelings are always clear. The fight between the machines is stylish and dynamic. The panel of Mecha Knuckles punching Sigma or Mecha Sonic tossing his opponent into a wall look great. And the glitchy flashback scenes are really fantastically brought to life. 

In other words: This is a really good comic book. It's every bit as good as the first issue and maybe a little better too. Daniel Barnes is not just proving himself as a good writer but maybe the best "Sonic" comic writer since Flynn let his wife work on a few issues. Unless it really falls apart in the second half, "Scrapnik Island" is shaping up to be one of my favorite IDW stories yet. [8/10]