"Crisis City Part 2"
How many Zombot-take over covers do we need? The dark-take over? It's already been done. How about something with a little more grunge for our metallic zombies?
As if the "Story So Far/Roll Call" wasn't enough, Sonic starts the issue with his own recap--even including the cruddy "I told you so" comment again.
The action through out the pages is interesting, but a little overwhelming. Once again, Jack Lawrence proves disappointing...I should wait until the end...
"You're too slow!" I'm guessing "Come on, step it up!" is not far behind.
Rouge's lines are still normal, but her role at the start is little disappointing. She can drive. Whoo. Where's that screw-kick move? Afraid of infection? Where's her heart-bombs? Or that cute little flying-explosive thing from Battle?
Omega's comments are also "normal" although between this and the Archie Comics I'm getting annoyed with the "Urge to maim--Rising" joke. However the Karate Kid reference ("No Mercy") is welcomed.
I'm not pleased with Shadow's Zombot design. It's lame, it's...cute? It's not threatening in any way. And really...why is he red? To see him easier, no doubt...but is he actually red and no one else is? WHY? Why wouldn't he be gray like the rest of them?
"Not so fast when you don't know how to work your rocket skates, are ya?" Oh great. Now the Wiki knows what to call Shadow's shoes, thank you Ian Flynn. UGH. Oh, there's another fast character here? We now have to demean them further by reminding everyone that SONIC is the fastest character. It's an annoyingly obvious statement. Something similar happened to Blaze in the Archie Comics...
This is one of those "Show, don't tell" moments. Maybe the audience needs to know that Zombot Shadow isn't as fast. This isn't the way to do it. Confirming the "Shadow's only fast because of his shoes" theory while also making Sonic visibly (/vocally?) faster is a slap-in the face to the character.
Speaking of slaps in the face...
Oh no, now Omega's caught the off-character infection. Omega would never openly acknowledge "caring" for Shadow or Rouge (maybe "tolerating"), but usually he uses his anger to show it. Declaring revenge on an enemy on the other's behalf, for example.
Now, which makes more sense?
Sonic: "Hold on! That's Shadow!"
Omega: "Negative. He is another Eggman robot. He will be destroyed."
OR
Sonic: "Hold on! That's Shadow!"
Omega: "Negative. Shadow is longer available. Target must be destroyed."
With simply changing a few words, the Omega's situation is seen differently. With the original he's a cold (dimwitted?) robot. As Mephiles would say, "This only proves you were created to stop Shadow the Hedgehog." In the rephrased version, it's easy to see that Omega thinks Shadow can not be saved and that he's destroying a zombot, not his "friend."
Blaming Sega? At the end of the day, Team Dark needs to be shown different from Team Heroes (as seen in: Team Sonic Racing Overdrive Part 2). But as I just demonstrated, Omega could prove he's different from the heroes (who always will try to save the un-save able) and go on to be a ruthless killing-machine without sacrificing his little character development.
For Shadow, I can appreciate the "You're too stubborn to be mind-controlled" comment from Sonic (is that a Shadow Fall reference?), but unfortunately the metal-Shadow doesn't snap out of it.
Things quickly fall apart for Sonic and the situation gets intense (Omega's comments return to their hilarious, destructive form). For a moment, it seems like Sonic might lose.
Aaand WTF? WTF????? Silver comes, grabs everyone, and saves the day. Wait, what?
First of all, I don;t think Silver can do that. Like with Blaze, Flynn seems to push these characters beyond their limits. If Silver can hold half a city's worth of people while hovering, why have Super Silver? How do these "big, bad, Sega Mandates" allow this?!
And I was really looking forward to seeing Sonic save himself. I can see it now: he almost gives up, gives into the infection--then snaps back into fighting action with a classic "I never give up" type of line. Then reinforcements could come. To make the situation worse, the group leaves. I thought "Sonic can't lose." It feels like a loss--not "I lost a friend" or "I can't believe I couldn't defeat them"--just a shabby, "Well, I guess we aren't good enough" type of loss.
At least between this disappointment we have a moment of comic relief with Tails and Omega.
Leaving the city's outbreak (which...kinda' makes the title worthless, now), we get some fresh updates with cutie Cream and humor with Gemerl. Rouge is shown to be affected by having to leave Shadow behind and Sonic checks in with the rest of our frazzled characters. The shift to Restoration HQ almost feels like a different story and it's a welcome change.
We get news that Omega might need a new body (insert Krane TMNT meme here). I'm guessing (hoping?) that he'll have a similar design that's easier to draw. For a reoccurring character, Omega is a very complex character to draw and just as time-consuming. This plot feels like a cheap move, but it could pay-off in the long run (and it is pretty funny).
On to the ending! I used to like cliffhangers...Unfortunately I think it's been over played in the Metal Virus Saga. In an arc that's been mostly gloomy (in a fairly light-hearted series) it feels like a small victory is due. They didn't save the city. But Tails might have a way to save the day. It could just end there.
But no. Starline has to butt his way into this one and make allusions to the Deadly Six. The guy has officially not a threat. The Deadly Six?! Lame, disgusting excuse for an ending. Sonic X knew how to do a good cliffhanger! The type that I (or at least younger me) would wait a week for. I wouldn't wait a month (or a week) for the next issue. I might not read another IDW comic until the Zombot Story is over (which is obviously very SLOW GOING).
So about the art:
 |
| Don't lose your head. |
Okay, I was to hard on Lawrence. Omega, Cream, Tails, Silver, and Rouge are all done well or relatively. Sonic's mostly better than before. Zombot Shadow's horrible, though, which makes him hard to take serious. There are still some heads barely connected to bodies and still lots of top teeth and no bottom, but overall it's better than the last issue. Still very expressive, but improvement is (still) wanted.
Summary:
- As expected, Zombot Shadow is lame. Sonic still acts a bit off as well as some of the other characters.
- Silver saves the day (again).
- Sonic catches up with how the others are handling the outbreak, slightly improving the plot.
- Jack Lawrence's Shadow-Zombot art sucked but otherwise the newcomer did a detailed job.
So the Final Ranking (S is highest, E lowest): C+ (High Average)
This issue is better than the previous, but it's unbalanced. The first half is grim and heavy despite well-timed lines from Omega, and while the second half is slower it's also much stronger. I think Sonic should have linked the two, or the second half should have been an "extra" story. Either way, the Zombot story is getting old fast and this issue did little to change that.
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