Sonic Frontiers Prologue: Convergence

Sonic Frontiers Prologue: Convergence

Publication Date: October 18th, 2022

How the video game tie-in comic has fallen. In the nineties, Archie Comics' "Sonic" books would devote whole issues to adapting and promoting whatever Sega's latest release was. Usually, these issues were "48 Page Specials" to boot. They even spent almost a year incorporating the first "Sonic Adventure's" story into the comic's world. As time went on, and the book became mired in its own increasingly convoluted plots, game tie-ins became less important. "Sonic Adventure 2" was slapped into a single issue, a measly prologue to the game that awkwardly inserted the game's entire events into the comic universe off-panel. Later on, Ian Flynn began shoving "Another Place, Another Time" episodes – brief, out-of-continuity stories – into the back of the book, presumably to satisfy whatever contractual obligation Archie had to promote Sega's products. It was an obvious sign that the comic book really wasn't too preoccupied with tying in with the video games anymore. It was a hassle, quickly dusted off into a corner where it could be ignore. 

And now, in the IDW era of "Sonic" comics, Ian Flynn and gang can't even be bothered to make short back-up stories promoting the new video games. When "Sonic Forces" came out, Sega itself published a collection of short comics promoting the game, releasing them directly to readers digitally. The same strategy is now being done with "Sonic Frontiers," Sega commissioned a little comic that IDW started giving away through their digital shop last month. Game tie-ins are now so inessential that they aren't even deemed important enough to be physically published! 

The generically subtitled "Convergence" begins with Sonic and Tails, aboard the Tornado, meeting up with Amy on an isolated island. She's currently embroiled in a battle with Eggman, instead a giant crab mech. After the three heroes team up to defeat the enemy, they discover the vehicle is piloted by a robotic copy. Tails deduces that it's all been a decoy, to distract the heroes from Eggman's plan on the Starfall Island, where the Chaos Emeralds have mysteriously gathered. This is exactly right, as Eggman has just landed on the first island and begins his scheme to uncover the technology left behind by an ancient race. 

"Convergence" serves its purpose as a prologue to the video game. It sets up the game's events and gets the reader intrigued. As you'd expect from a promotional tie-in, it's not exactly subtle about this. Tails flat-out explains the premise of the game, essentially, after the opening battle is over. Eggman's scenes are also devoted largely to explaining his evil plans in "Frontiers." The idea here is to inform readers of what the new game is about and get them invested enough, as quickly as possible, so they'll shell out money for it. 

However, there's a big difference between "Sonic Frontiers" and previous "Sonic" games: Ian Flynn wrote for the story for "Frontiers." Yes, the guy who got his start with a fan comic has now risen all the way through the ranks to create the story for a new "Sonic" game. This must make Flynn the ultimate ascended "Sonic" fanboy, this side of Christian Whitehead anyway. It also means he can incorporate this comic a lot more easily into the game's events than in previous tie-in releases, where he was simply following Sega's lead. The exposition is still blunt, though it's shoved into as few panels as possible. Otherwise, "Convergence" flows fairly smoothly into the beginning of the video game. 

Since "Frontiers" already carries Flynn's voice, he probably felt more assured in making this tie-in comic his own. The mid-battle banter that Sonic, Tails, and Amy share feels a lot more natural than I expected. (Such as Sonic calling the decoy "Adorable.") There's some more jokes about Eggman being disappointed with Orbot and Cubot. Flynn being the fanboy he is, the Eggman decoy speaks exclusively in catchphrases the doctor has uttered in the past. It's clear who wrote this, which is more than these quick-and-easy tie-ins usually get. 

Though not in continuity with IDW's comics, "Convergence" feels abreast with them for another reason. Evan Stanley does the art here, meaning this looks just like the main books do too. Stanley's work is solid, as usual. She clearly had fun drawing the action scenes. I especially like the panels devoted to Sonic and Amy leaping around some fireballs or the giant crab claw smashing down towards the heroes. Good stuff. (Stanley provided the lettering too, which takes a second to get use to.)

"Convergence" definitely looses much of its pep in the second half, when it switches to Eggman's devious schemes. Yet, for a simple eight page stories designed to point people towards the new video game, it manages to be mildly entertaining. It even got me more interested in "Frontiers" story. Knowing how lame the tie-ins were doing the Archie era, I appreciate this, at the very least, being better than it had to be. [6/10]