Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Issue 60

Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): Issue 60

Publication Date: May 17th, 2023

There's lots to talk about with this month's issue of IDW "Sonic," so let's get right into it. "Urban Warfare" continues into its fourth part with our heroes in a perilous scenario. Lanolin and Whisper are still trapped in Eggman's pocket dimension thing. Tangle is plummeting to her death but saved thanks to suddenly being intangible. Metal Sonic is right on her trail though, as she unwittingly leads him right to Sonic and the others. The group quickly formulates a plan. Sonic, Tails, and Amy will head to Eggman's tower, in hopes of stopping the fail-safes that keep Eggperial City running. Meanwhile, Blaze, Silver, and Rouge head off to rescue Shadow and Omega. All of that is easier said than done. 

"Urban Warfare Part 4" is one of those action comics that feels relentless in its pacing. Pretty much not a page passes without some new threat being tossed at our heroes. Oh no, Tangle is falling to her death! Oh wait, now Metal Sonic is here! Ack, Amy smashed Tails' computer! Oh jeez, Metal and the pocket dimension gateway/Ten-Sided Die of Agony has arrived! We just rescued Shadow but, holy guacamole, the fake Chaos Emeralds won't stop growing! And there's Shadow Androids here too! Metal Sonic cut the rope holding up elevator and... Watch your back, Amy! Eggman's got a gun!!!

It just goes on like that. It's exhausting! Reading this comic doesn't feel like a roller coaster ride so much as it does being suddenly strapped to a rocket sled while asked to recite the multiplication table. I can't say it isn't compelling. Every time I thought I had figured this issue out, some other wacky shit was happening. Yet it left my head spinning a bit. This is scheduled to be a five-issue story arc, which is fairly long by the standards of this series. The constant escalation of the action feels like there was enough story developments here for five more installments though. It's jam-packed with incident. 

This kind of unending thrill ride has an obvious downside: If the heroes are constantly having to deal with some new threat in their way, it doesn't leave much room for other necessary stuff to happen. There's several drastic events going on here. Tangle has somehow been turned into a ghost-like entity that can communicate with other people but just phases through any solid matter she tries to interact with. She was never at risk of falling to her death, because she inexplicably has a new superpower. This is a rather sloppy turn-of-events. It really feels like Stanley loved the cliffhanger of Tangle getting dropped to her doom but couldn't think of a reasonable way for her to survive. Instead, she's experiencing some bizarre new phenomena that will be explained eventually, I guess. 

That's not the only example here of an extraordinary happenstance being ignored because the barreling locomotive can't slow down. I'm still not entirely sure what's going with Eggperial City and the fake Chaos Emeralds Eggman has built. Okay, so Shadow's Chaos Control has overpowered them? But Eggman has fail-safes programmed into the city's infrastructure exactly to prevent this. Which is what the heroes are trying to disrupt, so the power supply will run out? And Shadow is stuck inside an ever growing net of emeralds for some reason too... Jesus Christ, slow down a minute! This story is starting to depend on so much technobabble nonsense that I'm loosing my bearings on what's happening. 

This particular issue is, to say the least, convoluted. I guess Stanley keeping the plot moving forward at an almost unbearable pace is a better solution than boring the reader with ever-more tedious descriptions of the why this crazy shit is happening. Yet at a certain point, my eyes start to gloss over. You see this style of plotting from time-to-time in video games, sci-if anime, and superhero comics. The obligation to include as many action scenes as possible run into a double-stuffed plot full of events. Eventually, the breathless delivery of yet more sci-if plot devices gives the reader whiplash from trying to wrap their brains around each new turn of events. 

I think rushing through the mechanical needs of the story, in order to immediately get to the next fight scene, is the main reason why this issue struck me as unsatisfying... But how did it get that way? Part of it is Stanley and Flynn getting too invested in how Eggman's new super weapon works. I don't actually give a shit how Eggperial City operates. What matters is that it's this ever-growing city that is consuming the countryside, not that there's a bunch of fake Chaos Emeralds charging it that come with their own set of rules. "Keep it simple, stupid" should always be the rule of thumb when it comes to explaining the "how" of the New Doomsday Device of the Month. Sci-fi and action comic writers frequently forget this though, bogging the story down in contrived explanations for how some plot device or supernatural MacGuffin operates. 

Another problem is that there's too many people to juggle here. This is a story arc with nine central characters. And that's not counting Whisper, Lanolin, and Shadow, who exists simply as damsels-in-distress to be rescued at this moment. (And I also excluded Omega from that count, since he doesn't show up until the issue is half over.) To balance out such a large cast, Stanley's maneuver is to have everyone split up into teams. Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Tangle the Ghost of Christmas Past are off on one quest. Rouge, Silver, and Blaze are off on another. I feel like this would operate a lot smoother if the number of characters involved had just been cut in half. This is the sort of writing you see a lot in superhero comics and fanfiction, where the nerds behind the keyboard are more concerned with what superpowers they'll have access to than whether what's happening flows in a satisfying manner. 

And yet... As frustrating and relentless as I found this particular issue, I didn't hate it either. Even in a story as overstuffed and convoluted as this one, Stanley doesn't forget the main reason we read this shit: We love these characters. We care about them. She includes just enough personality that I felt like I was reading a real narrative and not a bunch of chess pieces being moved around the 4D board. Such as Tangle's final thoughts before she expects to hit the ground: "Whisper, I'm sorry." Jeez, doesn't that tug on your heartstrings? Tangle is, as far as she knows, about to die and the last thing on her mind is that she let down someone she cares about. 

Soon afterwards, Tangle feels overwhelmed by everything that's happening. She pushes her doubts aside because she knows that saving the day is what's most important. That's the kind of never-say-die attitude I love about my favorite lesbian lemur! Silver gets a moment like that too, where he feels like there's nothing he can do to stop the bad shit that's happening, that his abilities are at their limits. A nod of encouragement from Blaze is enough to remind him to keep moving forward. (Now I see why people ship these two.) As corny as it sounds, seeing my favorite fictional heroes keeping fighting when the odds are stacked against them, to see them push pass their own doubts, reminds me to do the same. 

Stanley even includes a little humor. When Tangle ghosts her head through Tails' computer, Amy instinctively slams her hammer down. She apologizes for smashing Tails' handheld device, explaining it was just a mistake. That shit is funny. So is Tails weaponizing his, well, tails against Eggman during an intense moment. Or Amy admitting she's fed up with this shit when Metal Sonic first attacks. Humor doesn't just keep things light. It reminds us that these cartoon characters have personalities and histories. It makes them seem more alive. And that's really important in an issue so weighed down by Stuff Happening as this one. 

I could probably ramble on some more but I'll wrap it up here. Sorry if this review was as breathlessly assembled as the comic book was. I guess it just put me in that kind of mood. But one more thing: Thomas Rothlisberger's artwork is pretty good, with a lot of broad facial expressions and eye-catching sense of motion... Though I do think Rothlisberger's work is a little better when it's more detail oriented than leaning on the cartoony side of things, like he does here. Anyway, this issue gets a [6/10] from me.