Sonic the Hedgehog: Fang the Hunter: Issue 4

Sonic the Hedgehog: Fang the Hunter: Issue 4

Original Publication Date: May 1st, 2024

Audiences, as we know, are impatient. In our world of streaming and social media, everyone demands instant gratification from everything. Corporations have totally rewired their release strategies to feed this ever-constant demand for new dopamine hits among the phone-addicted populace. TV shows seasons are dropped all at once. The release of any big movie is proceeded by a constant drip-feed of new clips and trailers. Updates on upcoming video games appear regularly, lest players forget they exist. That's just the world we live in now. Yet the comic book industry, being typically behind the times, mostly sticks to the same old monthly schedule as always. This truth in hand, I'm intrigued to see how IDW deciding to put the "Sonic the Hedgehog" on-going on hold for four months to make room for a miniseries starring a bunch of C-lister baddies worked out for them. "Sonic" fans are psychotically loyal, so I have no doubt that the hardcore readers have stuck around. Yet what of the casuals? Did they feel the need to pick up all four issues of "Fang?" Or will they forget about the "Sonic" comics during this brief hiatus in the storyline? I know I've already forgotten but I'm old and my memory ain't what it used to be, ya whippersnappers. 

In fact, what was I supposed to be reviewing? "Finnegans Wake?" Oh no, it says issue 4 of "Fang the Hunter" here. Easy to mix those two up... Anywho, we begin with Fang's gang surrounded by the Hard-Boiled Heavies. The trio of flesh-bags make a run for it, Warp Topaz in hand. The robots pursue, the team splitting up and confronting each of the Heavies on their own. The tide really turns when Fang's Marvelous Queen is called in and the weasel/jerboa/"Hunter" incorporates the Warp Topaz into his hovercraft. Things play out chaotically, with Sonic and Tails arriving on the phantom warship eventually too. 

When introduced in "Sonic Mania," the Hard Boiled Heavies got a lot of hype. Which is funny, as they operated in game as not much more than level bosses. It's not like any of the individual bosses in "Sonic & Knuckles" have ever gotten much attention. I suppose the Heavies have a little more personality than a generic rock guy or a floating red eye. The egg-shaped mini-boss squad have remained fairly well-liked in the fandom, as far as Eggman's henchmen go. Maybe that speaks more to recency bias and how Sega promotes their games today versus how they did in the nineties. Still, here in 2024, I think your average "Sonic" player would deem the Heavies more memorable than Hei-Ho or whatever. 

You can see that aspect in the prominent role they're given here. Each of the Heavies get a little action scene to showcase their special abilities and personalities. Heavy Shinobi swings his freezing katana and throws some Asteron shurikens. Heavy Magician creates an illusion of Fang, in the issue's best surprise. Heavy Gunner fires missiles, Heavy Rider swings his mace. These scenes go a long way towards establishing more quirks for each of these guys. Heavy Rider speaks in grandiose Ye Olde English, to match his knight persona. Shinobi performs a haiku in the middle of battle. Gunner is trigger happy. Magician is crafty. It's nice that these guys are more than just generic goons, that they have individual thoughts and feelings.

Whether you think the Heavies are neat or interesting here, I guess, depends on how much a villain's competence level matters to you. Despite being introduced as formidable foes, the Hooligans take them all out fairly quickly. One assumes that's because they are the stars of this book. Yet these scenes have an unexpected side effect: Guys, are Fang and Bean... Cool? When Fang grabs Shinobi's sword and quickly turns the robot's freezing power against him, I thought to myself "Damn, that was slick." As any long time "Sonic" fan artist can tell you, nothing makes a character instantly look like a bad-ass like handing them a katana. Likewise, Bean producing a massive bomb, exploding Heavy Magician, and walking out wearing her snazzy top hat... Kind of makes the wacky duck look like he actually knows what he's doing. Meanwhile, Bark goes toe-to-toe with Heavy King for far longer than expected, making him at least a fraction as powerful as Sonic according to the power scaler loonies. This is supported by a rad panel of him superhero posing. 

In my review of this mini-series' first issue, I said Fang's status as a constantly foiled chump made him a lovable loser. The successive issues have increasingly shown the trio as actually not bad at their jobs. Was part of the purpose of this mini-series to rehabilitate Fang's image among fans, to make his transformation into a creditable threat in "Superstars" plausible? Or is this just a natural aspect of shining a spotlight on them? Obviously, Fang had to level-up if he's going to be the protagonist of his own series. Whatever the cause, Flynn and his team get major points for actually pulling this off. By the end of this series, my perception of Fang has gone from thinking of him as a springy simpleton to acknowledging that he's an occasionally skilled warrior. If nothing else, this series has gone a long way to bringing IDW's Fang closer to his pre-reboot Archie Comics "Nack the Weasel" characterization. (Though I doubt he'll be murdering anybody again anytime soon.)

None of the above invalidates Fang and the Hooligans as comical figures. This is still an issue full of wackiness. Bean remains a snark-ass who sarcastically rebounds many of the things Fang says. Bark scolds his tush on one of Heavy Gunner's rockets and Bean's tail feathers casually burn at one point. Once Fang installs the Warp Topaz into his hovercraft, we get multiple panels of the trio being rendered dizzy and nauseous by the teleporting process. The most obvious humorous element remains Fang's fixation on the Marvelous Queen. He hugs the bike, praising it like it's his girlfriend and giving it the Topaz like he's feeding a beloved dog. I'm on record as thinking that the people who baby-talk their vehicles are a little weird. Ian Flynn at least thinks that the same habit is funny. Does Fang fuck his bike? We can only speculate... And envision the horrifying fan art I'm projecting into your mind's eye by writing these words...

Aside from turning these three into something like action heroes, this mini-series also had the running arc of Bean and Bark threatening to walk out on Fang. I expected this to lead to an ending about the bounty hunter learning to appreciate his team a little more. How the real Eighth Chaos Emerald would be the Friends We Made Along the Way. To this prediction, Ian Flynn responds "lol no." Fang is lackadaisical about reaching Bark after powering up his hover-bike. Bean talks him into saving the mute polar bear, though the weasel is still pretty nonplussed about it. Upon defeating the Heavies and escaping the aircraft, Bean gets pissed at Fang not caring that the eighth emerald turned out to be a fairy tale. The duck and the bear storm off in their cute little rocket-powered side cars, feeling unappreciated and ready to seek out greener pastures. Fang has learned nothing from this experience. If anything, having a magic teleporting rock has now made him more of a conceited asshole than he was before. 

One could read this as a subversive flipping of the expected ending moral. He might have been the protagonist of these four comics but, at the end of the day, Fang is still basically a mercenary. He'll work for whoever will foot his bill, few questions asked. The jerboa is ballsy but that doesn't mean he has any moral scruples. He doesn't actually care about Bean or Bark. As he said over and over again: They are just mooks to him, disposable and interchangeable. I doubt Fang can care about anyone besides himself. (And his bike, an inanimate extension of his own pride.) That this fundamentally selfish, greedy person ends the story unchanged – just as if not more rotten than he was before – is pretty funny. And good on Bark and Bean for having the strength to leave an abusive relationship. You go, duck friend.

But I think there's another explanation for this ending that isn't based so much on Flynn intentionally upending our expectations. IDW "Sonic" is still operating under the somewhat hopeless delusion that it can be canon to the video games. The comics can do a lot of things but they can never directly contradict the video games. And, in "Sonic Superstars," Fang is ridin' solo. These three being a trio is still technically a factoid relegated to the B-Tier canon of the comics, that Sega's actual game developers are free to ignore. From the beginning, I assumed this mini-series was an extended ad for "Superstars." It ends by directly prompting the reader to pick up that game, promising the story continues there, proving my suspicion correct. Flynn handled it in a funny, interesting way but I imagine that "Fang must break up with Bark and Bean by the end, in order to lead into our recent game" was a direct order from his corporate overlords. 

Another obligation, one assumes, is that Sonic had to appear in this comic book too. The subplot of Sonic and Tails investigating the vanishing warship has been farcical from the beginning. That continues here, the duo showing up and not actually doing anything but taking credit for saving the day anyway. As it was last time, Sonic is depicted as a whiny teen eager for action and movement. I actually like Sonic being depicted this way, as a hyperactive kid. If his need for speed isn't being fed, he gets a little bitchy and melodramatic. If we are to assume that Fang starring in this comic redirects its perspective to his values, this makes sense too. Fang is more competent, even cool, in his story. Sonic, as Fang's rival, is depicted less heroically than usual. I'm sure the prickliest of fans, who demand Sonic's personality constantly matches a set of pre-determined attributes, will object to this. But I like it. It made me chuckle. 

Indeed, this whole mini-series made me chuckle. Thomas Rothlisberger's art remained excellent throughout. His big, expressive, cartoony faces sell the comedy while the action is kinetic and coherent. The panel of Heavy King slamming Bark to the floor is especially bitchin'. I doubt Fang the Hunter could support an on-going series. However, as a four-issue long goof, I had a lot of fun with this. IDW's detours into the Classic side of this franchise remain some of their most fleet-footed and joyously composed work. The rename is still some Captain Marvel/Shazam! shit as far as I'm concerned though. You'll always be Nack the Weasel to me, buddy! [7/10]