IDW Sonic the Hedgehog # 2

By Mark Rodriguez

Sometime after Eggman's last defeat, he vanished but all of his robots went wild and starts attacking everyone. After Sonic and Tails destroyed several robots, Sonic speeds ahead to look for more, while Tails stays behind to help the citizens rebuild their towns. Meanwhile a mysterious person watches over Sonic and has plan against him as well as Amy Rose. 

 

I have quickly fallen behind with the IDW Sonic comics, and they are on the verge of reaching issue 80, not counting several min-series and such. I got one of the hardcover graphic novels so I can finally see what else happened. I reviewed the first issue back in the day here-  IDW Sonic the Hedgehog # 1 Review in case you want to jog your memory (like I had to) before we hop back in.

"Fallout Part Two" opens with Sonic leading the giant-sized Death Crab away from another town. Sonic runs up the side of the robot and starts zipping around, smashing into it all over the place. The hedgehog thing shoots straight up and then zips straight back up, smashing through the robot, completely destroying it. The townsfolk are relieved to be safe and Sonic accepts their gratitude.

 

The robot starts to move again and Amy drops in, smashing it with her Piko Hammer. Amy says Sonic is getting sloppy, and Sonic is slightly annoyed and ready to rush off to the next town. Amy tells him to wait since she came to find him specifically. Sonic says he knows, since that is Amy's whole deal. Amy says it's not 'like that' this time. She wants Sonic to return to the Resistance. Sonic says he thought they were just doing clean up since the war was over. Amy says that was the plan but the Eggman empire was larger than expected and the robots are just randomly attacking everyone they find without Eggman in charge anymore.

Amy explains that is they work from a centralized position, things would work a lot faster. Sonic gives the idea a hard pass and Amy wants to know why. Sonic says Tails mentioned that the last group of badniks were too organized, and if it were Eggman, he would have made sure they knew he was behind this. Sonic says that Amy just happened to hear about an attack in an area where they would both be at. Amy says this is why she needs him with the Resistance. Sonic says this is more of why he needs to go ahead and find out what's going on. Amy says it could takes weeks or even months or running from settlement to settlement to look for clues. Sonic said he'd be helping towns people out which is a win-win for him.

A lambs runs up to Sonic and Amy and tells them that they're under attack. Sonic says he just took care of the super badnik. The lamb says there's an army attacking from the west, and Sonic realizes that the crab robot was a decoy. Sonic will run ahead to thin out the numbers. The lamb tells Amy that they turned the town hall into a bunker and she'll take her there. 

Amy tells the unarmed townsfolk to get into the town hall. She tells anyone that can fight to come with her. She tells the people to get to the town hall's top floors and not to fire until the badniks get into the town square. Sonic, in the meantime, is destroying every badnik he can find. One of the badniks is armed and Sonic runs off to avoid the gunfire.

One of the villagers tells Amy that not everyone is accounted for. Amy tells him to go door-to-door and bring back ten people at a time while checking for corners. One of the people on a nearby roof waves to the others and Amy tells them to prepare for an incoming attack. Sonic notices that a lot of the badniks have gotten past him. Amy tells the villagers to open fire and they start blasting the robots to bits. Any says the first wave is down.

Sonic says he thought Knuckles was the commander of the resistance. Any says he did command, but she was the one that kept things organized. While the town is in a good defensive position, there are still too many badniks out there. They have to find out where they're coming from and stop them so the town can stand a chance. Sonic takes Amy's hand and they both speed off towards the robots.

Sonic tosses Amy towards the badniks, who spins with her Piko Hammer out pretty much turning herself into a spiral of destruction taking out all the robots. Sonic catches Amy as she falls back down and they keep running. Sonic and Amy have a blast destroying all the robots. Amy says he can do this all the time if he returns with the Resistance and he turns it down.

Sonic says he already discussed his plan, as he continues to fight the robots. Amy fights as well and says he didn't even consider coming back. Sonic says he knows what works best for him, and Amy asks about what works best for everyone else. Sonic says she's better at figuring that stuff out, he'll do this thing but behind her. Amy asks if he'll do it for her. He says he can't play favorites. Amy says to do it for his friends. Sonic says they already have her. Amy blurts out if he'll do it for a chili dog. Sonic says that 'now she's talking' and Amy yells out if he's serious.

Sonic scouts out an enemy drop ship just outside the village with a lot of badniks still aboard. There are too many robots to get through so Sonic suggests a croquette bomber. Amy calls him a daredevil for attempting that from such a distance. Sonic rolls into a spin dash and Amy sends him flying with her mallet as if he was a croquette ball. Sonic shoots forward right into the ship and blows it up. 

Amy runs over to make sure he was alright. Sonic says she knocked him directly into the power core, which was a perfect shot. Amy laments that now that the invasion is over, Sonic will be heading off again. Sonic says it's what he does, moving on, saving people and living as free as the wind. Amy sighs in romantic admiration and then shakes it off. Amy then says that Sonic is right, which surprises him.

Amy says she understands how Sonic is, which is what makes her love him. She can't change him and doesn't want to change him. Sonic says she could always come with him. She says she can't since the Resistance still need her to keep things in order. She says if he needs somewhere to go, Knuckles was sent a town in the South and hasn't been heard from since, so he might need his help. Sonic decides to check it out.

Elsewhere the mysterious unseen boss (sitting in Eggman's chair) watches on, saying he underestimated how much Amy Rose has grown ad well as the fact that Sonic is now running off in a direction he wasn't expecting. Orbot and Cubot show where Sonic is heading off to, while displaying an image of two dangerous looking creatures. The boss says those two might finish Sonic off for him. 

 

My Thoughts- 

Pretty fun start for this new series full of all sorts of fast faced explosive action. The reader is slowly introduced to the IDW version of the Sonic story. With mention of Knuckles leading the Resistance and Eggman having been defeated in a resent off-panel war, the series seems to continue after the events of the game Sonic Forces. In fact the giant crab robot, the Death Crab, was also from that game. I doubt they ran into Classic Sonic in this version of events though. 

 

The comic seems to slowly introduce the characters one by one. The last issue had Sonic team up with Tails, this one featured Amy Rose, and it sounds like we're getting Knuckles in the next one. I also notice the fun coincidence in the order. Tails made his debut in Sonic 2, Amy first appeared in Sonic CD and Knuckles first showed up in Sonic 3. Very clever.

Amy stood out the most in the issue. While still having feelings for Sonic, it's just an aspect of her personality rather than being the main focus. She shows off her leadership skills and maintaining grace under pressure as she led the village to safety. She also gets to kick all sorts of ass in this issue.

I liked the banter between Sonic and Amy, especially also the fact that while Sonic seems somewhat put off by Amy's crushing on him, he still invites her to come with him. There's also something funny about the two of them discussing their personal matters while casually fighting against killer robots, which would be dangerous to the average person.

I had to re-read the first issue to be up to speed and one thing that stood out is how stylized the art is this one is when compared to the last issue. The first issue might be also called stylized but the characters did seem more 'on model' while being overly expressive at the same time. It's very noticeable since the issues are back to back in this collected volume and it's kind of weird they switched artists as soon as the second issue. No offense to Adam Bryce Thomas, of course. I like his style, but I liked issue 1's Tracy Yardley's style just a tad more. Or maybe let Tracy do the first arc for consistency's sake before moving onto Adam for the next one?

 

I also notice that the trade paperback also removed the little 'stay tuned for the next issue' blurbs at the end of the last page. The covers separate the issues, which makes it read more like one long on-going story rather than 5 issues put together.

It's good to get back to the story so I can find out what happens next. Individual issues are tough to find and super expensive when you do, so I'm glad that these collected volumes gave me a second chance to read them. I'll be looking forward to see where this story leads.