Review: Sonic the Hedgehog #6 (IDW)

“The Fate of Dr. Eggman” – Part 2
Story: Ian Flynn
Art: Tracy Yardley
Inks: Jim Amash
Colors: Matt Herms
Letters: Shawn Lee
Cover: Jon Gray

This is part of a two part story. In Part 1, Sonic discovers an amnesiac Dr. Eggman living in a village peacefully as ‘Mr. Tinker’. It took some convincing for Sonic to realize that Mr. Tinker was harmless, and was about to walk away, when Mr. Tinker mentions building “Eggman Land”. This was enough for Sonic to start having doubts, but the real problem arrives in the form of Shadow the Hedgehog, who heard just enough to want to take out Mr. Tinker before he builds his Eggman Land. Which leads us into Part 2.

It’s evident that Sonic knows Shadow well, because he knows that he has to try and keep Shadow from going after Mr. Tinker. Shadow’s not convinced, and is ready to take the amnesiac Eggman down, memory or no memory; but Sonic’s having none of that, and draws Shadow away in a battle race.

The Chaotix, knowing they can’t keep up with the hedgehogs, instead turn their attention to the person who brought Shadow here in the first place: Rouge the Bat, who had accompanied Shadow to the village to find Eggman. Rouge admits she was the one who tipped off the Chaotix to investigate Mr. Tinker and bring in Sonic, because she knew Shadow was going to find him sooner or later, and would thrash anyone that got in his way. Better to have someone who can handle Shadow in case things got out of hand.

Which leads us to Sonic and Shadow racing through the forest, as Sonic tries his best to convince Shadow that Mr. Tinker is no longer Dr. Eggman. Other than one moment of thought, Shadow was not buying it. At one point, Sonic gets tripped up by tree roots and takes a tumble, only to have Shadow pin him to a tree and confront him over all the things that Eggman’s done to him that he finds unforgivable. Sonic immediately points back about all the things Shadow’s done in the past and how he’s been forgiven, so why can’t Eggman?

Finally Shadow backs off and realizes that Sonic had been distracting him this whole time, before headed back to the village to confront Mr. Tinker about the Eggman Land project of his. Mr. Tinker takes Shadow and the others to a building where he’s been building a small indoor amusement park to entertain the kids. Finally convinced, Shadow walks away, leaving the others to close out their business with Mr. Tinker.

The issue ends with some sort of base, where Dr. Eggman…or perhaps someone posing as Eggman, tells Orbot to prepare his personal flagship so he can join up with the gathering Egg Fleet.

STORY: This was your basic ‘get Sonic and Shadow to fight’ story to introduce Shadow into the comic continuality. Most of the story focus does remain on the hedgehogs, with small cutaways just long enough to find out why Shadow was brought here to begin with. Ian does the basics with this story, and its enough to satisfy. It wasn’t especially stand-out, but it’s the early days of the new comic, everyone’s getting introduced.
RATING: 7/10

ART: Tracy Yardley has always nailed the Sonic art style pretty well, and once again he does not disappoint. The way he has Sonic and Shadow look at one another gives that extra incentive for those looking for a Sonadow angle.
RATING: 10/10

THE SONADOW FACTOR: Sonic and Shadow’s interactions throughout the racing/fighting are nothing short of the usual ‘the boyfriends are fighting again.’ But what draws closer attention is when Shadow decides to pin Sonic against a tree and confronts Sonic, wondering how Sonic can forgive Eggman after he’s been tortured and nearly destroyed by him. Bringing up these examples specifically can lead a Sonadow fan to speculate. In my personal opinion, I can see a point where Sonic may forgive Eggman for these transgressions, but Shadow cannot. Shadow could have had used other examples of Eggman’s wickedness, but instead he chose to focus on what brought harm to Sonic personally. I think he cares for the fact that Eggman has done great harm to Sonic in the past and doesn’t want to see it happen again.
RATING: 6/10