Sonic the Hedgehog #7 [IDW Publishing] – Comic Review

Welcome, one and all, to the latest instalment of my ongoing thoughts on IDW’s Sonic comics! We’re now getting into the meat of the story, with the current main villain getting their reveal, and things being set up for the next stage of the adventure.

• Sonic the Hedgehog #7
• IDW Publishing
• Story: Ian Flynn
• Art: Adam Bryce Thomas
• Colours: Matt Herms

As always, I’ll start with the cover. I got Cover B by the issue artist, Adam Bryce Thomas. It’s a wonderful piece of art, featuring a lot of really nice detail work in terms of shading, especially on the clouds. The ‘Sonic’ in the logo is actually shiny too, which is a nice touch. What surprised me though is that the cover actually feels a little thicker than normal. I don’t know if that’s going to be the norm going forward, but I hope so. It makes the book feel a lot more sturdy. It could just be because of the shiny logo though, so we shall see.

Keeping with the art for a moment, Adam Bryce Thomas was a great choice for this issue. We last saw him doing the internal art back in issue 2, which is my second highest rated issue so far. I absolutely love what he did with his issue though. His style has an edge of Sonic X to it, but with a lot more detail. I think that, when people think of Sonic, they often think of the bright colours and simple shapes, by Adam really goes out of his way to elevate the designs here. Facial expressions, dynamic poses, and a lot of interesting uses of shading and light make it feel really classy. I could be wrong, but I think that the colouring is a little darker than in previous issues too, which seems to fit pretty well with the event unfurling on the pages.

The story is marching along nicely, with the big bad revealed at last. All I can say is … I was wrong in how I called that. I know that a lot of people did get the twist right, but the execution is such that it shouldn’t matter, even it was obvious for some. Metal Sonic is a classic villain, and he’s on form here, dealing out some major damage. The whole thing about him having Eggman’s bio-data on file gives rise to a potential way for the story to switch Mr. Tinker back to Dr Eggman without too much hassle too.

The action was coming thick and fast this issue, with about half the book being given over to Sonic running amok and tackling Metal Sonic and Egg Pawns alike. I’m fine with that. Sonic comics should have issues where the action takes priority. Plus, it’s not like it failed to deliver on the overall story front. There were also some nice nods to other Sonic media. The flower at the end grows on the title screen of Sonic Forces when you finish it, and Sonic’s falling poses when he leaps from the Tornado are lifted form the same game. There were references to Sonic Heroes too, and the end looks like we’re heading into Sonic 3 territory. Oh, and Cover A features the buttons from Dreamcast and Mega Drive/Genesis controllers.

The only real issue I had with this issue was the use of plain backgrounds in the panels. It’s a technique that works well in some cases, not only here, but in series like Shirow Miwa’s Dogs: Bullets and Carnage. There were a few panels that I felt like would have benefited from a detailed background though. It’s not a big deal, but it’s there.

All in all, this is a really strong issue. The production values seem to have been raised, the story continues to be interesting, and there aren’t any major problems to derail it. Easily another 4 out of 5 for the run.