Usually when I tell people that I read Sonic comics I either get a WHY!?, or a brush off. I read Sonic mostly because I’m an old school Sega fan, I grew up playing Sonic right along with Mario. Sonic is one of the most recognizable characters in gaming, yet not many people know he has a comic.
Sonic having his own comic is great for the industry in general, it’s a nice way to bring in new readers, and the industry needs new readers. This book unlike some other “kids” books doesn’t dumb down the material the way the Marvel Age books did, and its not stuck in the 50’s like the majority of Archie Comics titles. The writing is in a way where kids can understand it, but not enough so that it seems ridiculous.
The writing on this issue is done by Karl Bollers, a guy who has been writing Sonic for a while. This issue is the second part in a two issue arc, dealing with the assassination attempt of Mina Mongoose, a very popular pop singer in Mobius. Apparently Dr. Robotnik hates her singing and he sends Nack the Weasel to kill her. This might seem a little violent for kids, but the way it’s done it downplays the death aspect, in fact Nack never even gets close. In the last issue The Chaotix came to the rescue and they are needed again in this issue. I’m really amazed at how well written this book is, for being a title named at younger readers. All the stuff is dealt with in a way kids can understand and there is a lot of action. You get a ton of characters with this book too, not only the characters from the games, but characters created just for the comic.
The name of the game in this issue is drama. Drama between Mina and her boyfriend, between Sonic and Mina and between Sonic and Mina’s boyfriend. Of course there’s always Robotnik hanging around too, but in this arc he has seemed almost as a secondary problem. This issue in particular takes a bad situation (the assassination attempt) and turns it into a way for the characters to vent their frustrations at each other and talk out their problems ,and of course Sonic saves the day.
The art by Ron Lim is outstanding, Lim is one of my all time favorite artists for his work on most of Marvels Thanos stuff (Infinity Gauntlet etc.) It surprised me when I saw he was drawing Sonic, it seemed an awfully long way to fall, from drawing a major Marvel crossover, too drawing Sonic, but artists need to keep things new and fresh just like writers do. I’m glad that an artist of his caliber is drawing a lesser known title,.
This arc wasn’t one of the better ones in recent memory, but it was good, looking forward to seeing what happens with this book in the future.
