Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome Issue 3
IDW Publishing
Story: Ian Flynn
Art: Thomas Rothlisberger & Mauro Fonseca
Colours: Valentina Pinto
The road to issue #50 continues here! Enjoy a TEN-ISSUE-LONG adventure leading up to the EPIC SHOWDOWN in milestone issue #50
Surge and Kit have begun to seek answers about their origins, and what they find may be more than they can handle…
Starline may have gone too far this time. Can he wipe their memory and restart again, or can the imposters finally outsmart their maker?
The penultimate issue of the current IDW Sonic The Hedgehog spin-off is an excellent piece of work. First up, I love the three covers this month. All three are suitably different, but each captures the feel of the issue in one way or another. My favourite is the RI cover by Aaron Hammerstrom and Priscilla Tramontano. This one is a nice depiction of the hold Dr. Starline has on Surge and Kit, and the anguish Surge in particular is feeling with it all.
Internally, the art is strong too. The initial pages have some nice visual effects in play to show both the state of Starline’s recordings and how unhinged the villain is becoming with this plan. Meanwhile, Surge’s facial expressions continue to be a source of joy for me. She’s a really emotive character, and all those emotions come with a hint of malice. Honestly, it’s wonderful. The layout of the pages was really varied with this issue too, which helped make it stand out a lot. Oh, and Kit’s light-up eyes are freaky.
In terms of the story, this was all about the new duo discovering how they were created. By the sounds of it, it’s not the first time, either. This time around though, Surge and Kit are able to enact their own plan and start moving things towards their own goals. I don’t want to go into too much detail here, as it would be heavy spoilers, but this was really well done.
We all know that Dr. Starline shares some of his idol’s overconfident nature, and he shows himself to be easily manipulated when wrapped up in his own plan here too. The reaction from Surge and Kit to their discoveries feels right too and perhaps shows that Surge, at the very least, had some darkness in her all along.
Overall, this was a good mix of backstory, action, and a push toward the end game. This is an easy 5 out of 5 for me, and easily the best of the spin-off so far.
Matt Doyle Media 