Sonic the Hedgehog: Bad Guys: Issue 2

Sonic the Hedgehog: Bad Guys: Issue 2

Publication Date: November 4th, 2020

One of the reasons why I might have seemed a little overly disappointed in the first issue of “Bad Guys” is because this kind of thing is entirely within my wheelhouse. I’m a big fan of “men on a mission” flicks like “The Dirty Dozen” or “The Wild Bunch.” I watched way too many episodes of “The A-Team” as a kid. I even gave “Suicide Squad” far more credit than it deserved. You get a band of rogues together and send them on some wacky mission and I’m immediately sold. “Bad Guys” is pretty much the “Sonic” version of that. Flynn is clearly drawing from his own work here, as “Bad Guys” has a similar premise to “Eggman’s Dozen,” one of the better arcs of the post-reboot Archie era. I’m hopeful that, now the set-up is out of the way, this thing can get moving. 

His team assembled, the second part of “Bad Guys” sees Starline and his motley crew going on their first proper mission together. Starline wants to break into a storage facility full of Eggman’s power cores: little balls of concentrated energy that boost certain strengths. (Starline isn’t telling his duplicitous teammates the entire truth either.) Naturally, the place is heavily guarded. As the gang breaks in, they do everything they can to make it look like Sonic is responsible. But will Eggman see through this deception? And will Starline see his scheme through to success without his feelings for his former boss getting in the way?

The best thing about issue 2 of “Bad Guys” is it adds a little more depth to Starline and Zavok’s personalities. Starline’s interior monologue reveals that he has no trust in his teammates and, in fact, intends on disposing of them once he achieves his goal. So the platypus isn’t just willing to deceive people, he’s planning on killing them too. Starline graduating from nerdy wannabe to full-blown supervillain would certainly make him a more intimidating figure. Zavok, meanwhile, seems to be a little more honorable than I expected. He believes that robots can never be as creative or willful as living things. Which suggests he’s not a total authoritarian, who wants to enslave everyone, but rather some sort of Nietzschian, who sees himself and his Zeti pals as inherently superior to the rest of the world. This helps distinguish Zavok a bit in the “Sonic” rogue gallery. 

The interaction between these two is probably the highlight of the book. During a quieter moment in-between smashing robots, Zavok and Starline have a little talk. The doctor ends up revealing a little too much of his true motivation, suggesting he’s personally hurt by Eggman’s rejection. When Zavok responds by saying “He’ll never take you back,” Flynn comes awfully close to framing this as a romantic rejection. Which is made even funnier when Zavok immediately tells Starline he “doesn’t need” Eggman. The pep talk/seduction that follows actually gets to Starline a little. But we, the reader, know that Zavok is also planning on betraying the doctor. You’re left wondering how sincere this conversation was. The question of who is scheming who looks to be what will keep me interested in this mini-series. 

In general, the interplay between the team members energizes what would otherwise be a routine action issue. Mimic is probably the most selfish of the squad, only in this to get his name out of Eggman’s database. (A fitting motivation for a shapeshifter.) His barely-begrudging tolerance of his teammates, especially of Rough and Tumble’s idiotic catchphrases, made me chuckle. While the skunks remain the most simplistic members of this quartet, a moment where they leap into action to protect their new “boss” is surprising. These two are simple-minded lunkheads who need to take orders, so it makes sense that they would immediately latch onto a new leader. It also suggests that this team is already closer than expected. 

As much as I rag on Flynn’s overreliance on action scenes, they are fun here. Mimic shape shifting into an Egg Pawn just to snipe another one in the back shows how dangerous and elastic his abilities are. The proper climax of the issue has Rough and Tumble taking down a robotic T-Rex. The fight is over way too quickly but I can’t dislike any comic book that includes a robot dinosaur. In general, Flynn seems to be using these action scenes not just to fill pages. It’s allowing him to continue to show off the cast’s unique abilities. Mimic’s shapeshifting, Rough and Tumble’s team work, and Zavok’s technopathy all come in handy during this raid. 

As much as I enjoyed this issue, Flynn is still choking on his own set-up a little. Three and a half pages are devoted to Starline explaining the mission objective to the team, something that a single panel probably could’ve accomplished. It’s not like Flynn needed to tell us what a Power Core is. We probably could’ve figured that out on our own. There’s minimal character development in this scene too, making it really unnecessary. Flynn could’ve cut the exposition heavy intro, jumped right into the raid, and spent a little more time on the awesome dinosaur fight. 

Still, this is a big improvement over the first installment of “Bad Guys” and one of the better balanced issues Flynn has written this year. I’m actually getting invested in these guys and am curious where their relationships will go next. Moreover, the action isn’t being used as a means to its own ends but rather as a way to build on the characters. The way it’s supposed to be! Let’s see if Ian can stick the landing in the next two issues of this thing. [7/10]