Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Issue 50

Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Issue 50

Publication Date: June 29th, 2022

I remember when issue 50 of Archie’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” comic came out. It was a big fucking deal for me, at the time. Though I have many misgivings about the “Endgame” story arc as an adult, as a kid, it felt like such a truly epic moment in “Sonic” history. The issue was poised as the cumulation of everything that came before it, the pay-off to everything the comic and "SatAM" had promised, even if my grown-up eyes see that obviously isn’t the case. Moreover, a silly video game comic running even that long definitely felt significant. Back then, I had no idea the series would last for almost 300 issues. Fifty seemed like the biggest number I could imagine for the book. (Considering "Endgame" was initially planned as the series' conclusion, I guess that was true for the execs at Archie too.)

And now, here we are, almost exactly twenty-five years later, reading the 50th issue of a totally different "Sonic" comic. The "Sonic" franchise has changed in so many ways in all that time, that it's impossible to compare the two. Except in one regard. Issue 50 of Archie "Sonic" really did overturn the book's status quo, at least for a while. While it's hard to say what lasting effects IDW "Sonic's" issue 50 will have on this series, it feels like a similarly big deal. That's certainly how the company is treating it. They've been hyping up the issue for months, creating a separate mini-series almost entirely to set it up. They've released the book with ten alternate covers – this one is my favorite and here's the obligatory hideously overstuffed Jon Gray cover – and much fanfare. There's no way this issue 50 will ever hold as big a place in my memory as the old one did. I'm an old man with old man problems and an old man's perception of time now. Yet I will say: It does come pretty close to living up to the hype.

Picking up where "Imposter Syndrome" and issue 49 left off, "Battle for the Empire" has Sonic, Tails, and Belle following the trail of Badniks to the mysterious Eggman city. This is, unknown to them, a trap laid by Starline and his minions. Before anyone can figure out what is going on, Sonic is ambushed by Surge and Tails is attacked by Kitsunami. Meanwhile, Eggman appears to confront Starline and his attempted coup, the other doctor more than happy to face down his former mentor. While those guys fight it out, Belle sneaks underground with a damaged Metal Sonic, choosing to repair the usually villainous robot. More dramatic confrontations will follow before the night is over.

Ian Flynn does a pretty smart thing in this issue. There's eight principal characters here and they've all got their own thing going on. The author saves space and keeps things rolling by pairing each of them off. Sonic and Surge duel. Tails and Kit battle. Eggman and Starline duke it out. Belle and Metal Sonic, meanwhile, wander towards the innards of the city. While cutting between these four separate events might've fractured the pacing, "Battle for the Empire" somehow keeps your blood pumping the whole time. This is an excellently structured comic book and not a single panel is wasted. 

Maybe that's because these pairings build-up dynamics we've been really eager to see. So much of the last year's worth of issues were devoted to setting up Surge and Kit's rivalry with Sonic and Tails that it's kind of ridiculous that this is the first time they've actually met each other. Similarly, we've been hearing for so long about Starline's desire to dethrone Eggman. Flynn is really aware of this though and makes sure these aren't just fights. The characters quickly lay out the reasons behind their rivalries. it's such a simple thing but, within a few pages, you understand totally why Surge and Kit feel this way towards Sonic and Tails. These handful of pages give these two more actual character development then most of the mini-series devoted to them did. 

It's should be well known by now that I've largely been a Surge and Kit skeptic, despite their immediate and massive popularity with the fanbase. Surge's constant bragging and bullying annoyed me more than it charmed me and I found both didn't have much in the way of depth. Yet this issue accomplishes something no previous story featuring them have: This is the first time Surge and Kit have actually been cool. When Kit first confronts Tails, he coldly informs him how quickly it takes somebody to drown. That's some cold-blooded shit to say to a motherfucker before you kill him. Honestly, I had no idea that Surge's stuttering little simp had that in him. Similarly, Surge really stands up to Sonic, matching him in many ways. These two juvenile goofballs finally prove themselves to be compelling villains that are capable of actually intimidating their enemies. Wasn't sure they could pull that off, to tell you the truth. 

Surge, in fact, becomes a much more interesting character here than before. Previously, she had described a desire to destroy Sonic, betray Starline, and then tear down both his empire and Eggman. While fighting Sonic, the tenrec elaborates on her nihilism a little more. She blames Sonic equally as much as Eggman and Starline for her situation. She's incensed that Sonic has let the bad guys live, to cause chaos again. She's enraged that the world praises Sonic as a hero, when his good guy actions constantly causes the villains to escalate things further. She believes the entire system must be destroyed, because it's not getting any better the way it is. Flynn makes sure to make Surge more sympathetic here too. She points out that, whatever her past life must've been, it was surely pretty bad to bring her here. And that nobody has ever come to rescue her. (I'm sure this is leading to some sort of ironic reveal about her past life.) This slots Surge into an easily understood super villain tradition: The angry young man tenrec lashing out at the world that has abandoned and betrayed. 

I have no problem with that archetype and think it's pretty compelling. But it's also unnecessary, at the moment, because I think Surge is right. I've written about this before: Sonic showing Eggman mercy did lead to more violence and misery later on. In real life, I believe the state executing or imprisoning people is immoral, because it's almost always the fault of our fucked-up society that people do criminal things in the first place. Because human beings, and the way they interact with the world around them, are really complicated. But Eggman is a cartoon character. He's always going to be the bad guy, because he's designed to be Sonic's nemesis, to create reasons for plots to happen. Sonic giving him another chance when he was the docile Mr. Tinker was one thing but the subsequent times he's allowed the doctor to run off are increasingly making the hedgehog look like an idiot. Surge is justified, I think, in being angry at Sonic. 

If this wasn't a comic book ostensibly made to promote video games, to give Sega's I.P. and mascots publicity, Flynn could really interrogate Sonic's motives here. Maybe there's a part of the hedgehog who fears that, if there's no villains to fight, he'll loose his purpose in life as a hero. Instead, Flynn keeps trying to give Sonic the moral high ground. Forgiveness, once again, is framed as the motivating factor of his personality. He doesn't just execute Eggman because he feels the doctor has the potential for goodness in him. There's a difference between believing even people who have done bad things can be redeemed and allowing a super villain to keep building death machines and attacking peaceful communities. Flynn has successfully made Surge not just a physical threat to Sonic but an ideological one too... But this could quickly become a Black Panther/Killmonger scenario, where the revolutionary villain feels way reasonable than the status quo supporting hero. (Especially when, in this case, the status quo is "Sonic and Eggman have to fight each other.")

It seems to me that Flynn was determined to make all the characters interactions in this issue equally meaningful. Kit is not as complicated a character as Surge. While Surge feels a real sense of injustice at the world and how it's treated her, Kit is literally programmed to make Surge happy. Otherwise, he's just a fucked-up little kid, driven by emotions and conditioning he can't control. This is reflected in Tails' conversation with his counterpart. He almost successfully talks Kit out of fighting him. Once he's been disarmed, the threat is essentially over. It's a moment that gives Kit a little more depth but what I really like about this scene is the peek it gives us at Tails' inner monologue. He's actually pretty calculating towards the situation, trying to figure out his opponents' emotional weaknesses and use them against him, even flattering him at one point. Kind of surprising to see Tails act in a manipulative manner, even if it's for Kit's own good. 

Seeing Sonic and Tails rumble with the imposters, while finally getting more insight into their relationships, is very satisfying indeed. Yet the story arc I've been most interested in the comic's last two years is Belle's hang-ups about her origins. At one point, I wonder if Belle might become a villain in a misguided attempt to bound with her "dad." Eggman wonders this too, when the two meet here. He offers Belle a place in the Eggman Empire. But the little wooden puppet has evolved beyond that. She wants to mix things, not tear them down. Freeing all the other Badniks the way she freed MotoBud seems like it'll become her driving motivation from now on. She realizes that the man who made her is gone now and that she has to move on, to become a Badniks Rights Advocate of some sort. She tells Eggman this directly. In other words: This is the conclusion to Belle's character arc, at least as it's existed up to now. And it happens without any fighting or explosion. That's pretty nice and, even if I think the book dragged its feet a little to get to this point, I'm glad it happens like this. I'm sure Belle's relationship with Eggman will continue to be a source of drama eventually, because that's comic books, but I like how it all fell into place here. (I also like Belle fixing Metal Sonic and a strange respect seemingly forming between them. I hope that's further signs of Metal Sonic developing an actual personality, if Sega lets the comic do that.)

Characters growing and evolving and resolving issues is very nice and all. But sometimes you just want to see fools getting owned. Issue 50 provides that as well. Eggman and Starline finally have their big showdown. The doctor confronts his former assistance, delivering a great line – "You're in my seat," which reminds me about that old joke of Bill Gates and God – and the two get to duelin'. Soon, they are fighting it out in the final boss robots from "Sonic Heroes" and "Lost World," a nice bit of symmetry for fans who care about that sort of thing. And just when it looks like everything is going according to Starline's plans, Eggman totally turns the tables on him. Within a few minutes, everything about Starline's perfect scheme is completely undone. Naturally, to an egomaniac like Starline, to be outwitted on such a level is absolutely devastating to him. Eggman defeats him, not just physically, but mentally. To emphasize just how crushing this loss is, Flynn even has the good doctor smack the platypus around with his bare hands. I don't think that's really necessary – Eggman doesn't have to bodyslam his foes to be an effective villain – but this is overall a pretty bitchin' scene. It reminds me a lot of Snively's defeat at the end of the "Scrambled" arc. It reiterates that Eggman really is a force to be reckoned with. He's better at this than Starline and it looks like that's a lesson the up-start villain has learned the hard way. 

To further show off what an event issue 50 is, IDW give this one an extra number of pages to play with. This is a story that really benefits from that extra length. The action scenes are allowed to breath more. Almost literally, in the case of a whole page being dedicated to Sonic and Surge stopping and catching their breathes in the middle of the fight. It's a small addition but one that really makes you how much these two are pushing each other's limits. Similarly, the extra amount of panels dedicated to Sonic and Surge trading blows further sells what a big deal this is. Maybe those action scenes are a little too dialogue heavy. The heroes and villains do have some fairly involved conversations in-between punching each other. It borders feeling unlikely at times but, over all, I'm really glad that Flynn and his team were given more pages to tell this story. The action is better spaced out and the narrative is more well-rounded in general. 

Even though this issue ends on a cliffhanger, another action packed installment being promised next time, "Battle for the Empire" does feel like the end of whatever you want to call the most recent slate of comics. A season or mega-arc or whatever. It even includes some action movie style "death" scenes for two major villains. I put quotation marks around the word "death" because both are vague enough to allow either character to return. Considering we've already seen the solicits for issues 52 and 53, it's known that at least one of these characters will be coming back very soon. As for the other villain, left in a collapsing underground tunnel in a state of shock, I certainly don't think we've seen the last of them... But I do think that antagonist will be out of the story for a while. I don't think it makes sense for a comic book that is still developing its rogues gallery, even after fifty issues, to start killing folks off. Yet I do believe both of these moments are meant to mark this particular chain of events as wrapping up and leading us into the next "season" as it were. 

I imagine that IDW is aware that Adam Bryce Thomas is one of the most well-liked artists working on their "Sonic" titles, so it makes sense to have him draw this one. Highly kinetic action scenes are, after all, one of Thomas' specialties. Yet, as has been seen over and over again, how much Thomas' work pops really depends on who is coloring it. This issue shuffles through three different colorists: Matt Herms, Heather Breckel, and Reggie Graham. The pages colored by Herms look fantastic, none of the details in the lines being lost and the impact of the attacks really being felt. The pages Graham colored also look really good, even if his work is a little brighter than Herms is as far as the intensity of the colors go. However, the Breckel pages really seem to cover up some of the finer details of Thomas' lines that we love so much. Everyone looks a little rounder, a little smoothed off, in those pages. It's really interesting how just the change in style of coloring can change how a page looks overall so much. Definitely makes me wish I could see Thomas' page in black-and-white. 

Considering how much I've been bitching about the set-up to this issue, I'm honestly almost mad that I ended up really liking it. I still think all four issues of "Imposter Syndrome" mostly being build-up to this installment robs that mini-series of its ability to stand alone. A lot of the character development Surge and Kit display in this issue could've been done there. I think waiting so long to get Sonic and Tails on-page with their rivals is a definite example of "Writing for the Trades" that hurt the quality of those previous issues. I can quibble all day about that but it doesn't change that "Battle for the Empire" is a pretty damn good issue. Surge and Kit finally come into their own as villains. Starline is put back in his place. Belle seemingly resolves her Daddy Issues. It's good shit, a satisfying pay-off. Even if we probably could've gotten to this point a lot sooner... [7/10]