Sonic Bad Guys as well as Sonic the Hedgehog (the comic book series) and all the images you see in this recap are owned by IDW and SEGA of America
You know, I spent a good month catching up on the Sonic Comics which I felt very accomplished for doing, and then the holiday season hit which threw everything out of whack. Now here I am a month later once again trying to polish off this backlog I’ve built for myself; not to mention trying to keep up with the new stuff and my VERY EXTENSIVE Halo Retrospective that I’d be VERY appreciative of if you gave that a look! In any case, it’s time for me to finish what I started and bring this mini-series to a close! Does Sonic Bad Guys finish things off with a brilliantly realized final issue or does it fail harder than Eggman fails to take over the world every other week? Let’s find out!!
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When we last left our favorite rapscallions, they were about to swarm on Dr. Starline for his obvious betrayal. Sadly for them, the not so good doctor has a bit of Walter White in him, and prepared a foolproof plan for this very likely scenario. No, he doesn’t have a machine gun car ready to go. Instead, he activates the Tri-core and bolts out of there with Sonic Super Speed, but not before giving them a taste of his awesome power!
From there, it’s a fight for survival as Starline has to sneak, race, and punch his way out of the facility with four ticked off former associates on his tail. To make matters worse, Mimic used the computer to… I guess send Eggman a DM letting him know where the intruders are and now it’s a race against time as Eggman has a full battalion of Egg Drones ready to carpet bomb the crap out of the facility and destroy anyone inside. It’s an effective setup to be sure as Starline’s chickens have come home to roost and he’s being put in a dire circumstance, so while we do understand why his associates are after him, there’s still tension in watching him try to find a way to escape. It’s the mark of a good bad guy that you can find amusement in their comeuppance while also find enough engagement with the character that you want to see just how they’re gonna get themselves out of this knot.
Starline manages to avoid his attackers due less to his own skill and more to the fact that Mimic is a little jerk bag and bailed as soon as he was left alone. This stroke of luck gave Starline just enough time to circle back to the computer room and put into motion the next phase of his plan which involves removing the Eggbase he’s crashing in from Eggman’s system, and converting the defensive droids there to his command. Now I thought this was ALREADY taken as read considering he’s been hanging out there for a while now and the badniks already seem to tolerate his presence, but perhaps pressing a few keys on this keyboard gives him EXTRA security, and while we still don’t know what Starline’s ultimate plan is, it seems clear that this is the best he can do at the moment rather than what he truly wished to accomplish here. In any case, he manages to speed out of the facility leaving Zavok and the two goofy brutes to stumble around looking for him; unaware of the impending doom about to rain from the sky. Zavok, despite his clear skills as a leader blows off Rough & Tumble who bail as well, and Zavok returns to the computer room to find an angry Eggman on Zoom. I’ve probably said this a hundred times already, but Eggman is absolutely perfect in IDW’s comics and he brings that sense of maniacal abandon here as he lets Zavok know that he’ll destroy whatever he wants if it means making his enemy’s day slightly worse.
Zavok uses his robot-controlling powers to minimize the devastation of Eggman’s air strike, but it’s still enough to level the place to a pile of ash and Zavok had to use all the remaining power in his Power Core to survive the building’s collapse. And so everyone goes their separate was as Zavok finds a hole to recover in, Mimic is off to get revenge on Whisper, and Rough & Tumble to do… whatever it is they do; probably raid an All You Can Eat buffet before talking loudly in a movie theater. Starline, despite having bungled this operation beyond repair, manages to come out somewhat ahead. He may not have gotten everything he wanted, but he did get his base secure and most importantly he realized just how much his adoration of Eggman has gotten in the way of his own ambitions. I feel like Starline has made this revelation at least twice by now, but this seems to be the time he’s going to take it very seriously as he plans to conquer the world; not to prove to Eggman that he is a worthy peer, but for his own reasons and to prove to himself that he’s a foe worth taking seriously. And so the mini-series ends with Starline facing his future with a renewed sense of purpose; one that should definitely leave Sonic and his pals quaking in their running shoes if Starline truly is about to realize his true potential!
If the Breaking Bad references weren’t a tip off already, I’ve been re-watching the final season of that show recently so I had some Bad Guy stuff on my mind while reading this final issue. I like that Starline ultimately gets away with everything as it does quite a bit to make him a credible threat, but I think we missed an opportunity here for something DRASTIC to happen to really get the audience to turn on him. Everyone ends up walking away more or less unscathed with the most physical damage happening to Zavok who I’m sure will be fine and the most property damage falling on the shoulders of Eggman who we saw in this issue doesn’t particularly care one way or the other. Frankly everyone involved other than Eggman finishes this series ahead as they at least aren’t in jail anymore, so the “Bad Guy” bonafides of this series as well as the ascension of Dr. Starline feel somewhat lacking. Still, they managed to do a lot here with all of the characters and I have newfound respect for guys like Zavok who until now I just took to be an overly theatrical lump of oatmeal for all the interest I had in his character. It’s probably tempting the monkey’s paw to say this, but I do hope to see more of these characters in the main series now that they’ve been fleshed out a bit; especially Starline who continues to be one of the best additions to the IDW series. I mean shoot, as long as they don’t put Zombots in it I’m happy with them trying ANYTHING with these characters; even Chao the uneventful and downright dull world of Chao racing!
The Reviewers Unite 