The new Sonic The Hedgehog series from IDW comics written by Ian Flynn has had an impressive debut with four new issues coming out in the month of April 2018. Will the fourth issue of the this run prove to be the first misstep with the new series?
Summary
Sonic meets up with his old friend Blaze the Cat and makes a new one with Tangle the Lemur.
Writing
This issue presents the first problem with the IDW series. With a new series, especially one based on a property with a lot of mythology behind it, there is a need to find a proper balance with the storytelling. There must be a mixture of explaining straight out what the fans can expect to happen in the new series, making sure not to dump too much on the reader, and not spoon feed the information to the point it becomes boring. Take the Transformers series for example. The aspect of combination didn’t come right away. Sure the constructicons were able to combine but this was explained as being a rare occurrence. This made it clear to fans not to expect the teams to combine every time they show up in a story line. The introduction of Blaze jumps ahead and makes it hard to understand what to expect from the series.
Blaze is a character who comes from another dimension with her own set of Chaos Emeralds, the Sol Emeralds. Unfortunately, the Emeralds and their abilities haven’t been addressed yet. Are they gathered somewhere safe? Are there a limited number of them? Before these questions are answered, Blaze is brought in and the existence of other kinds of Emeralds is made known. It just feels a bit too early to bring in a character with so much backstory before the groundwork has been laid in the new series.
This issue isn’t a total waste for writer Ian Flynn. Tangle is a cute character and hopefully there will be more of her in the future. It also looks like things are going to get more intense moving forward but this issue felt like a bit of a misstep.
Artwork
The artwork by Evan Stanley helps to sell the introduction of Tangle to the series. The art offers perfect action sequences which emulate how the characters move straight from the video game series. It also helps to convey Tangle as an energetic character who is eager to help others.
The color work by Matt Herms is on point. There seems to be great detail paid to the use of lighting effects to help show the shadows which form from the day turning to night and the flame effects created from Blaze’s fire powers.
The lettering by Corey Breen employs a great mixture of effects to help the action scenes play out. The speech bubbles also offer a great flow of light conversation which is perfect for when Sonic and his friends are joking around.
Conclusion
The new Sonic The Hedgehog series performed impressively with its four-issues-in-one-month launch. Sure this wasn’t the best of the four, but it leaves the audience in a perfect place to really get the story going. This new series seems to be off to a great start and fans of Sonic need to check it out.
