IDW Sonic the Hedgehog Issue #21 Review

This issue can be summarized by Central City being attacked by Doctor Eggman while Tails works on a cure and vaccination for the Mets virus. Tangle and Whisper work on evacuating Central City. Tails gets a sample of the live virus to be used on the cure, meanwhile Amy sends out her pilots to help with the evacuation order.

While all this is transpiring, Doctor Starline has travelled to the Lost Hex to discuss a proposition with the Deadly Six, who agree to help Starline but hint at betraying him later, (which will be discussed later in this review). Back in Central City, Tangle and Whisper are overwhelmed, and it’s quickly revealed that the metal virus has gotten completely out of hand in other parts of the world as well. Silver is on his own defending Ice Paradise, and Restoration HQ is MIA. Tails completes his work on the metal virus and heads out, taking his Tornado to help out Tangle and Whisper with the evacuation. As he’s leaving he tries to send the cure to the Restoration Team, but is cut off thanks to Cheese and Chocola breaking the computer. He tries to extract his hard drive but it breaks when he tries to escape.

After escaping, he meets up with Tangle and Whisper and helps them evacuate. The survivors get on board, the Tornado breaks, and the ship takes off as Amy reveals that Restoration HQ is down, as is everyone in it.

I’ve been looking forward to this issue for awhile, but felt a little disappointed in the choice to bring in the Deadly Six. I really think Eggman and Starline on their own make a much better villain than the Deadly Six were or would be, so their inclusion was a let down. I’m looking somewhat forward to seeing how they are incorporated, I’m hoping I will be pleasantly surprised, but I’m not anticipating much positive to come out of this. The Deadly Six are just not for me. That said, the rest of the comic I like and this arc is still amazing.

Art style wise, we’re gifted with a very colorful and less pastel scheme than we had last issue. I like it, I think it works well with keeping things bright despite the dark plot. It adds a nice contrast to the comic book and is very aesthetically pleasing to the readers. There’s a lot of detail added into the line work, it’s simple, but if you look closely you can see how much time and effort went into the line work. Simplicity in artwork can be misleading to people, often some will say “more is better” but I’ve found in my own art and my own art studies that the opposite is true. I truly enjoy this art style, it’s amazing.

Story wise, we’ve already discussed my disappointment in the inclusion of the Deadly Six, but otherwise I have enjoyed seeing the world with Tails as the lead character. Through the whole comic, you watch events unfurl as Tails does, you don’t see the fighting until Tails enters the fray at the end, but he sees it when he calls Tangle and Whisper or Amy. His reactions are well written, and the balance between perspectives and what Tails is watching is well done. I always say it, but Ian Flynn is an amazing author who deserves the praise I give him each review.

Looking forward to the next issue, I am positive we will see the events that transpired at Restoration HQ, and hopefully see more about a cure for the metal virus. It was there, but then broke, so that has to be the continued method of fighting the plague.

This post was originally written by the author for TSSZ News.