Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 30
IDW Publishing
Story: Ian Flynn
Art: Priscilla Tramontano
Colours: Heather Breckel
The Metal Virus Saga is over, but that doesn’t mean things are back to normal. As the world begins picking up the pieces, who will be missing? What villains will escape? And who will go back on their word?
As always, I’m starting with the aesthetics here. I got the excellent, character-heavy Cover A by Adam Bryce Thomas, and it’s easily my favourite of those available. Meanwhile, Priscilla and Heather team up well on the interiors, giving us plenty of kinetic action poses and good use of lighting to make images pop. There were some minor issues for me – Zazz still feels off design-wise, and Rouge appears to have a strangely long arm in one panel – but the work is otherwise very strong.
On the story-front, this felt like a transitional issue to me. That’s not a bad thing. We got to see which enemies are still lurking around, as well as a renewed resolve for the civilians of Sonic’s world. The various hero groups reunited, and there was a nice little battle between Metal Sonic and Shadow the hedgehog.
I thought Ian did his usual great job with characterisation in this one. Ian really understands the characters and how they’re supposed to act, which helps keep everything on-brand while still exploring his own ideas and concepts. To that end, I thought Knuckles was great fun in this is one.
By far my favourite scene though came in the final two pages where we got to see what happened to the series’ titular Blue Blur. The return of one of my franchise favourite characters is always going to get a thumbs up from me, and in this instance, it sets up some interesting possibilities. Seeing Amy Rose dealing with the continued pressures of leadership is also worthy of note, as her arc since the IDW run began has been really good to read.
Overall, I enjoyed this issue a lot. While the mild inconsistencies in some of the art prevent me from giving this full marks, honestly, it’s well worth a read. The story and characters are on point, the colour work is lovely, and I’m still confident about Sonic’s comic future. I give this one 4.5 out of 5.
Matt Doyle Media 