Sonic the Hedgehog: Bad Guys Issue 3
IDW Publishing
Story: Ian Flynn
Art: Jack Lawrence, Aaron Hammerstrom, Bracardi Curry
Colours: Leonardo Ito
Who can you trust in a group of bad guys? Zavok and Mimic find out the hard way in “Trust Issues,” and are… less than happy. Meanwhile, Starline is struggling to maintain control of the rowdy group of villains.
Three very nice covers again, with my favourite being Cover A Aaron Hammerstrom and Matt Herms. It’s an action shot, and while it does spoil a little of the issue, it doesn’t show anything we didn’t know was coming. The internal art has also remained consistently strong. The characters show plenty of expression, which is particularly impressive with Zavok, as his facial structure means it all has to be in the eyes and body posing.
Dr Starline is a delight in this series. From his physical reactions to things to the constant back and forth between failure and success, he’s doing a great job leading the story. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the action pick up, only for the plans of all involved to start falling apart.
For Starline, he absolutely underestimated not only his temporary companions but also his former mentor, Dr Eggman. Meanwhile, Zavok and the others are unaware of the power Starline now has in his grasp, and that Eggman may well be on his way.
In a way, this mini-series has been really effective at pointing out two things. One is that the villains have a lot more potential than we sometimes see and that when they team up, they can be quite successful in causing chaos. The other is that Eggman is not as dumb as his numerous failures would indicate. He knows his foes well and has been picking up on the assaults on his bases not feeling like the work of Sonic and Tails. He even acknowledges that Tails is capable of subterfuge. He may get focused on his rivalry with Sonic, but Eggman is a perfectly capable overlord when he wants to be.
Overall, I’d say this was the strongest of the mini-series so far. It balanced the action and story progression well, set up several conflicts for the final issue, and featured some excellent art. I give this one the full 5 out of 5.
Matt Doyle Media 