In what is easily the best and coolest moment of this latest issue of IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog, Amy Rose breaks up an argument by slamming her signature hammer into the ground so hard it breaks up the two characters having said argument. It’s a great visual, and leads to Amy showing some urgency and directness as well as leadership.
Then it gets undercut by Amy saying she doesn’t actually lead. Then Jewel the Beetle, the actual leader, has a crisis of confidence. The reader then gets a little confused on Amy’s characterisation. Jewel eventually gets the courage to plan a search party of a missing child, but it doesn’t feel as if she was really necessary.
It’s as if Amy is there as a legacy character from Sonic lore to encourage the original characters to keep on going. Again it feels more like a spin-off title has crept into the Sonic The Hedgehog run. If anything, perhaps Eggman’s connection to Belle should’ve been at least more pronounced in this issue. Just to keep things feeling like it’s in the loop of the mythology.
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One thing that this series usually gets right are the cliffhangers. They usually spin out a quick twist to maintain the excitement for the next issue. Here they do a literal cliffhanger when Belle and Tangle are to fall off the edge of one. When one of them is a character with the ability to extend her tail for as long as deemed necessary it’s not the most exciting thing that has been done in this series.
So for the second issue in a row, Sonic The Hedgehog begins to feel as if it’s slowly being taken over by story ideas for a further spin-off series that wasn’t commissioned and it’s impacting any further foundations for a long new story-arc. Which is a bit of a shame, as the artwork is lovely. The characters are continually vibrant, full of personality, and also very consistent. The atmosphere of the fire is ever present due to the red colour that litters every frame, and it’s never unclear what’s going on movement wise.
That said, a shout-out to the concept of a good-guy Motobug appearing throughout the episode with real BB-8 style energy.
Sonic the Hedgehog #46 is out now from IDW Publishing.
