Sonic comes across a town under attack from the biggest Badnik force he’s ever seen. Luckily, help is on the way from his old friend Blaze, as well as a new hero! Get ready for the debut of Tangle!
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Ian Flynn
Artist: Evan Stanley
Pages: 32
The introductory four-week run of issues for Sonic the Hedgehog comes to close with Sonic coming across two characters we’ve yet to meet in this run of comics. One is an established character that has appeared in previous games (Blaze the Cat) and a brand new character for the IDW comics (Tangle the Lemur).
The introductions work in the same way that the previous intros have gone. Sonic ventures into another town, beats up a few badniks and does it with the aid of an ally that’s an established character. We have that again here with Blaze, but we’re thrown in Tangle to make things slightly different to the established formula.
Despite the strain with this now established formula that writer Ian Flynn has now played out, the issue works on this three-way dynamic. We’re shown the aloof yet appreciative Blaze and her powers of manipulating fire (alongside her formal way of talking) working together with Blaze as a way for Tangle to see how well Sonic can work with other people against threat. Immediately Tangle gets involved and also works well with Sonic, gaining his respect in the process.
The set-piece is the main attraction of the issue; we see that Tangle’s tail just keeps growing and can be used in a number of ways which gives her her own unique selling point. Juggling a similar drive to help people whilst enjoying it in a similar way to Sonic. It doesn’t give her much of a dynamic personality to jump out at this time, but as first glimpse we know enough to see that’ll she’ll be another action-orientated character.
The art is still great; Evan Stanley manages to capture little character quirks with the action – and gets enough emotion to make them jump out. Especially with Sonic and his slightly cocky attitude. There’s a lot of good stuff here.
The previous issue was demonstrating signs of strain with the format already, and is the same here. At least we end on the first glimpse of Dr. Eggman which hints that the series will start to move forward with it’s plot now, and hopefully edge Sonic the Hedgehog into a new phase.
Sonic the Hedgehog #4 is now available from IDW Publishing.