Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Issue 28
Publication Date: June 24, 2020
There was a slight delay between issues 27 and 28 of IDW’s “Sonic” on account of, ya know, the entire world teetering towards total catastrophe. The entire comic industry was put on hold for a while, much like everything. Presumably because artists and writers can work from home and the printing industry has been deemed essential, the comic world got moving again fairly quickly. (Which is good, I guess, since the comic industry is seemingly always in the verge of financial ruin.) Also, this meant issue 28 ended up coming out on my 32nd birthday. Aww, thanks, Sonic.
Anyway, “All or Nothing, Part 3” continues the Restoration’s last ditch effort to retrieve the Chaos Emeralds and undo the Metal Virus. Silver and Whisper quickly unarm Zor. Espio uses his ninja skills to outwit Zazz. The Babylon Rogues manage to grab Master Zik’s emerald, though fucking up their hoverboards in the process. Rouge sneaks aboard the Faceship and grabs the emerald powering it just as it advances on Angel Island. While the heroes are closer than ever to victory, the battle isn’t over. Zavok uses his own Emerald to grow to enormous size.
Last issue, I was complimenting Ian on finally getting the pace moving again. Because I am a fickle bitch that is impossible to please, I will now accuse this comic book of moving too quickly. The Chaos Emerald-charged Deadly Six have been set up as a serious threat that will take great effort to overcome. The fights last issue where extremely close. The other three members of the team, meanwhile, come off here as complete jokers. Silver and Whisper snatch Zor’s emerald in a few pages. Espio makes a complete fool of Zazz. Zavok never seems to consider that someone would sneak aboard his ship, as Rouge does. The Rogues take Zik’s emerald through a series of quick, spontaneous moves.
Victory comes too easily. There’s not enough dramatic tension to the fight scenes this time. It makes the Zetis look incompetent and makes you wonder why it took the good guys so long to best them. More than anything else, the sloppiness of this makes it seem like Flynn is just tired of this story arc too and wants to end it as quickly as possible. If that was the case, why the fuck did you let it stretch out for over a year, bro? But this is hardly the first time Ian has dragged his feet through a story just to rush through it at the end.
But it’s not all bad. Flynn does pull off something here that, frankly, makes me angry... But in a good way. Much like he redeemed Vector in IDW, after years of him being an intolerable dork, Issue 28 actually has me liking two other characters I had previously written off. During his fight with Silver, Zor waxes poetically about misery and destruction, as the little emo prick is wont to. After Silver and Whisper depower him and tosses him to the Zombots, he gets... Excited, because the thought of being (symbolically) torn apart by zombies gives him a weird little goblin boner. I misjudged you, Zor. You’re not a nihilistic emo teenager. You’re a hardcore masochist. I can respect that kinkiness and I'm sure Zor and his mistress - Zeena? - have a very compatible lifestyle.
As for the other one, I always found the Babylon Rogues about as shallow as can be but Flynn is rehabilitating them too. When Wave informs Jet that her and Storm’s hoverboards are busted, he sacrifices his own to get the Chaos Emerald back to Angel Island. He chooses to willingly strand himself and fight alongside his friends, possibly to the quasi-death. Damn it, there’s enough honor among these thieves to make me respect lame cast-offs from a fucking racing game. How dare Flynn takes yet another fast rival for Sonic and give him some depth and complexity?!
Through it all, Flynn continues to acknowledge the stakes here. When Amy sees that Cream didn’t make it back, her mind races ahead to the worst (and correct) conclusion. After defeating Zazz, Espio’s interior monologue clarifies that this victory is for Vector and Charmy. People are dying and the heroes are grappling with that... Except, of course, they’re not. Which has been a problem with the Zombot premise the entire time. It’s not a permanent transformation and we know the good guys are on the verge of undoing it. The only reason Flynn has been allowed to zombify Sega property like Shadow and the Chaotix is because the undo button is about to get slammed. Which definitely drains the character beats of some of their meaning. Your mileage may vary on how willing you are to look pass that and enjoy these moments for their human furry drama.
It’s a mixed issue but it does have a pretty good ending. I’m sure Zavok pulling a “Make my monster grow!" on himself is pulled directly from the video games, since it seems most “Sonic” games end with a boss battle against some kaiju-sized monstrosity. But I didn’t know he had that power, so it caught me off-guard. Moreover, his move of scooping up a handful of Zombots and tossing them at Angel Island is also fairly unexpected. You don’t see someone weaponzing zombies in such a direct manner that often. (Even if this is probably just a way to get all of Sonic’s friends in one place before they are returned to normal.) And also I guess Zavok can touch Zombots with out getting infected, but really who gives a shit about that?
As is usually the case, it’s another good looking issue too. Stanley and Thomas provide the art once again. Thomas does the first twelve pages and he has a lot of fun creating dynamic perspectives during Espio’s fight with Zazz. An acrobatic ninja zipping all around an airborne enemy is exactly the kind of thing that lets Thomas stretch his muscles. Though maybe he pushes it too far during the Babylon Rogue fight with Zik, as I’m not sure what advantage Jet blowing some air on the elderly Zeti has. Stanley draws the more stationary pages and, admittedly, her scenes of Rouge sneaking around the Faceship don’t look very exciting. I do like her rendition of giant sized Zavok though. He looks appropriately demonic.
The book is still struggling to wrap things up in a satisfying way. The pacing is still off and will probably always be off, as pacing is Flynn’s greatest weakness. But at least he has a good bead on the cast. He’s still managing to sneak in little personable moments that brings this book more alive. I guess that’s worth something. Here, enjoy a purdy alternate cover. [6/10]
This arc's doubled down on the whole "have more than one artist on an issue to help with deadlines" trend that's been around (26-29 were supposed have Evan as the sole artist) by also having multiple colorists as well: Evan's pages in issues 26-27 were colored by Herms, Tramontano's pages in 26 were colored by Breckel, and ABT's pages in 27 were colored by Curry. Meanwhile this issue takes it even a step farther: the first few pages were colored by Herms, Evan's pages were colored by Unger, and the rest of ABT's pages had Herms do the initial flat colors while Unger did the finishes, so you get something that looks different from both of their solo efforts.
ReplyDelete"And also I guess Zavok can touch Zombots with out getting infected, but really who gives a shit about that?" Ian stated on the bumblekast that it was because he was powered up by the emeralds
"Which has been a problem with the Zombot premise the entire time. It’s not a permanent transformation and we know the good guys are on the verge of undoing it."
ReplyDeleteBuddy... that's like bitching cause good guys always wins at very end superhero comic. From the perspective of these characters the world is ending, there's no vaccine, most of their friends are gone, Sonic is slowly turning into a Zombot and Zavok has the remaining emerald. They have a plan but they don't know if it's going to work, the only thing they know for sure is the future is a robotized desert. Sure you know good guys are gonna win but you know what other story ends exactly how it's going to end? Basically most of the narratives in existence.