Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 26
IDW Publishing
Story: Ian Flynn
Art: Evan Stanley, Priscilla Tramontano
Colours: Matt Herms, Heather Breckel
“All or Nothing,” Part One. This is it. The few remaining fighters from the Restoration and their allies are ready to launch a final assault to reclaim the Chaos Emeralds and finally eliminate the Metal Virus. Can they defeat the Chaos Emeralds’ new protectors, or will they all fall-and why isn’t Sonic part of the fight?
One last desperate attempt to save the world will take all the help Sonic can get-including from some former foes!
With everyone exhausted as the world falls, will they be able to stand up to Chaos Emerald-powered bad guys and zombots?!
As always, there was a good variety of covers on show this month, and I ended up with Cover A by Evan Stanley. It’s a nice piece, showing the infected titular character. Nathalie Fourdraine’s Cover RI is in her usual style, and looks as good as ever. My favourite is probably Cover B though by Aaron Hammerstrom, which shows the battles to come with Sonic at the centre. Internally, the team up method of two pairs of artists and colourists works well too, which the issue still feeling consistent even with the switch up partway through.
In terms of story, we’re building on what we learned in the last issue. A good chunk of it is devoted to building up the various teams that will take on each member of the Deadly Six. This was actually quite interesting as we got a good variety of reactions from the groups, ranging from outright acceptance to Knuckles refusing to go along at all in case Eggman tries to steal the Master Emerald. Everyone’s reactions felt right, and definitely fit what we’re used to.
There was also a nice little exchange between Eggman and Sonic too. This saw the Blue Blur bringing up the Mr. Tinker arc and Metal Sonic’s decision to rejoin Eggman, and then led into something that hadn’t been broached before: Sonic helped spread the virus. All the time he has been running it off, he will have left behind infected grass which would then, in turn, infect others. That’s a harsh blow by the villain and one that came with the bonus statement that he doesn’t view this as them not being enemies, but rather that working with Sonic is just a convenience for Eggman.
The battles themselves mostly kick off this month, too, and of course, they aren’t as straight forward as the teams expected. Tails and Amy’s attempts to outsmart Zomom largely go ignored by the Zeti, Espio’s camouflage doesn’t fool Zazz, and Cream jumps in with Gemerl and ends up face-to-face with Zeena. Meanwhile, The Babylon Rogues tackle Master Zik and Jet ends up faced with a dire situation. The only one that hasn’t begun their battle yet, is Rouge.
By the end of the issue, we’re pretty much ready for a heavy dose of action, which I’m assuming the next issue will bring us. This was a great start to the final part of the arc though, and definitely worth a read if you’re either enjoying the story so far or simply want more Babylon Rogue content. This gets a 5 out 5 for me.
Matt Doyle Media 