IDW'S SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, ISSUE #72 - THOUGHTS
WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD
We're back with another thrilling installment of "Tay Sits Down to Write the Review Hours Before the Next Issue Releases!"
Lemme start by saying, the cover art for this one, by Natalie Haines, absolutely rules. Jet and the Phantom Rider circling each other while lightning strikes a Surge-shaped storm cloud in the background is so cool out of context, and even cooler in.
This issue, to me, the beginning of what I'm calling the Phantom Riders arc, following up the Extreme Competition arc from the last three issues, and looking to be the climactic story of the Clean Sweepstakes saga.
As is often the case with the first issue of any arc, this one is a bit of a slower one, not quite as thrilling as any issue of the arc before. It goes by quick, but there's still a ton of neat stuff in here to dig into, most of it is just... quieter in nature.
The story opens up with Surge and Kit marching right into Clutch's office and declaring that they will no longer be participating in his operation, desiring to leave behind their lives of villainy and pursue the much more fulfilling roles of heroes. It, uh... doesn't go well for them.
What's interesting here is that Clutch never actually makes any form of direct threat about what he'll do if they leave. He doesn't fly off the handle and smash anything to make an example for them. He doesn't even raise his voice.
And that's one of the things I love about Clutch as a villain. His entire strength is manipulation. He knows exactly which strings to pull, exactly which tone to employ to keep his operatives in mind. As I've said before, he doesn't have an army the size of the Eggman Empire, strength to contend with the Deadly Six, or an intellect on the level of Dr. Starline. But he has one thing none of them do - an unrivaled understanding of his resources, and exactly how to make use of them. There's just something so fascinating to me about a Sonic the Hedgehog villain who's entire strength comes from pulling strings and getting into peoples' heads.
I love this guy! I hope he doesn't... y'know... die at the end of this saga, because frankly, I'd love to see him return again in the future.
We also get Sonic on the run, trying to stay under the radar of the Babylon Rogues, until...
Real world years after their introduction, Sonic finally meets Nite and Don! I'm a huge fan of this scene - partly because I really like Nite and Don, and I'm always happy to see more of them, and partly because I love this kinda thing! Main characters from the games meeting side characters from the comics that they've never run into despite them having been around for a while! These path-crossings between characters who are well-established but don't usually interact is something I love in any story, but especially in Sonic, because it gives me an opportunity to see these characters I've known and loved for such a long time explored in ways I've never seen before! This goes a long way toward making the world feel more lived in, and is the kind of thing I'd been hoping we'd see more of as the comic got to have more and more continuity under its belt.
Also, I know it's a little thing that has already been shared a lot, but I love how visibly angry Sonic is in this panel. I've been gushing over any little hint of Sonic's 90's edge being brought forth in this saga, so any more of it is always gonna get me right where it counts.
Here, Nite clues Sonic in to the fact that, in addition to Amy and Tails, the Chaotix are also looking into Clean Sweep, which means we will more than likely be seeing them at some point in this arc.
(Side note: Nite's mug has a modified version of the Crush 40 logo on it, and the poster behind him has an edit of their eponymous album. This is awesome and Crush 40 is awesome.)
This is cool because I love the Chaotix, Vector specifically being one of my favorite characters, but it does worry me that they might be showing up... a little too much? Maybe it's just me, but if feels like they show up a lot over the course of IDW Sonic, especially lately between the Misadventures arc, A Very Chaotix Halloween, and the Spring Broken special. I've gotten into it a bit in other posts, but aside from Sonic Tails, Amy, and Eggman, I prefer most Sonic characters to be "sometimes food."
The cast is so big that you can constantly keep revolving side characters in and out, occasionally throwing in new ones, and go a good while between repetitions, which, in my opinion, only helps to make the appearances of these characters to feel more impactful and, again, make the world feel more lived in. Sonic has so many friends that he doesn't always see many of them that often. It makes sense to me, but maybe it's only me.
Anyway, it'll seem neat to see how they play into everything that's going on here. What's interesting to me is, back in Misadventures, when Clutch hires the Babylon Rogues to steal Echidna artifacts from Angel Island, he says that he did so to keep certain parties occupied while he conducted his business with the Restoration - setting things up for the Clean Sweepstakes. I'd assumed the parties he spoke of were the Chaotix specifically, whom Knuckles recruited to help retrieve his stolen relics.
However, if this was his intention, it seems the Chaotix have gotten involved anyway. Was this a simple oversight on his part? Were his efforts in vain? Or is something more going on? Was the party he sought to distract actually Knuckles? Does his grand plan involve some kind of play for the Master Emerald? If so, that'd be a very bold move for him. For now, though, the best we can do is speculate until we get a better look at the scope of Clutch's scheme - I will say though (and this is a bit of a spoiler within a spoiler), Evan Stanley has posted some WIP pencils for upcoming issues that appear to be part of this same arc, and one drawing among them does seem to show an Emerald present, so it's pretty safe to assume at least one Emerald, be it Chaos or Master, is definitely in the mix here.
Meanwhile, poor Surge is going through it. She lays out exactly what I have found tragically beautiful about her entire character arc, especially over the course of this saga: She envies the freedom of Sonic, but can never have it. No matter what, someone is always seeking to use her for their own ends, and if they can't, the make sure that she can never have the freedom she seeks by damaging her life beyond any hope of repair. It's a surprisingly deep and sad thing to see played out in the Sonic universe, and at the point she's at, I'm not sure there's any good way out for her.
That being said, Kit seems to have his own course of action in mind, and I'm excited to see exactly what it is, because while Kit was designed to be the reason to Surge's rush, he's always seemed to be the one capable of going even further off the deep end when pushed. He always seems to have some pretty extreme levels of violence in mind when he gets quiet and focused. He's kind of creepy like that, and who knows what he's got in store. Whether it works out in his favor or not, I don't imagine it looks good for Clutch, who, like so many others before him, has likely underestimated the little fox.
The last scene of this issue has Amy, Tails, and Belle trying to make their way to Jewel's office to expose Clutch, only to be intercepted by Clean Sweep Inc.'s mascots, who reveal themselves to be none other than Rough and Tumble. We knew these two were working under Clutch, but they haven't shown up in a bit, and it left me wondering exactly where they fit into Clutch's machinations here. Turns out they were right in the spotlight the entire time. Makes sense, given the way they're usually played for comic relief.
They pretty immediately call for backup - which is funny to me. It's characteristically underhanded of them, sure, but it also shows that they've been gaining some level of understanding of just how outmatched they are when dealing with Sonic and co. I did notice that Tumble says they have more infiltrators on their hands, implying they've already dealt with a few before these three arrived. I'd say it's pretty reasonable to assume they're referring to the Chaotix, so it's likely Amy, Tails, and Belle will be running into them soon.
Story-wise, this issue has a lot of neat stuff to dig into, just not quite as much forward momentum as recent ones. And that's good! You have to have setup to have payoff! Plus, these quieter scenes provide a great opportunity for character exploration, an opportunity this issue takes full advantage of. Just about every character gets plenty to do here, plenty to show us who they are when they're not in the heat of action.
In terms of art, this issue is everything the previous arc would lead you to expect. Aaron Hammerstrom continues to bring us some absolutely gorgeous pencils, with some really solid inks from Matt Froese, an artist I've been following since long before their work on IDW Sonic, and have been delighted to see show up in the comic's credits.
As I mentioned previously, we seem to have some upcoming pencils from Stanley herself, and while I love Stanley's art and am always excited to see more of it, it does make me a little sad that we won't be seeing as much from Hammerstrom or Min Ho Kim. They truly have become my absolute favorite artists working on this series - even over legends like Yardley and Hesse. Guess I couldn't see their pencils exclusively forever, though. Whatever the case, Stanley's upcoming stuff looks good, and I'm excited to see more of it, as well as what happens next, which I'll be seeing in... *checks watch* ... About an hour.
As always, thanks for reading, and I'll catch you next time!