Comic Preview: Covers and Solicitations for IDW Sonic #1, #3 and #4 Revealed

To round out the comic news for the month, we have the long awaited solicits up, and boy is it quite a doozy! Not only new adventures, but new allies, new villains and new appearances from someone who wasn’t in Forces!

In Sonic the Hedgehog #1, Sonic’s mananged to defeat Eggman’s latest evil scheme, and is currently going around the world to defeat the robots still on the rampage. That’s a lot for one hedgehog to handle, which is why his very best friend Tails is joining in on the action!

Sonic the Hedgehog #1—Cover A: Tyson Hesse
Ian Flynn (w) • Tracy Yardley (a) • Tyson Hesse (c)
SONIC’S RACING INTO A NEW ADVENTURE!After defeating the evil Dr. Eggman’s latest plot, Sonic is racing around the world to shut down the robotic Badnik forces that are still attacking villages. But it’s a big job for one hedgehog—even Sonic! Fortunately, he’ll have some help from his best friend: Tails!
*Retailers: See your order form for incentive information.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Expected in-store date: 4/4/18
Sonic the Hedgehog #1—Cover B: Tracy Yardley
Ian Flynn (w) • Tracy Yardley (a & c)
*Retailers: See your order form for incentive information.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Expected in-store date: 4/4/18

*Retailer incentives:
Order 10 copies, get one free variant cover by Nathalie Fourdraine!
Order 25 copies, get one free variant cover featuring the characters from the issue by Rafa Knight!
Order 25 copies of issues #1-4, and get one free variant cover of issue #1 by Sonic Mania artist Kieran Gates!

Sonic the Hedgehog #2 was revealed yesterday. Skipping to Sonic the Hedgehog #3, Sonic meets up with his oldest rival, Knuckles the Echidna, to do some more baddie-beating and village-saving. But there’s foulness afoot as two new villains, Rough and Tumble, threaten to be more than they can bear! Can the Blue Blur and Rad Red beat them down and help the civilians?

[Please bear with us as there is currently no cover image available]

Sonic the Hedgehog #3—Cover A: Tyson Hesse
Ian Flynn (w) • Jen Hernandez (a) • Tyson Hesse (c)
Sonic and Knuckles team up, and it’s just like old times—until two new villains show up. With a group of villagers under attack, will even the combined forces of these two heroes be enough to take down Rough and Tumble???
*Retailers: See your order form for incentive information.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Expected in-store date: 4/18/18
Sonic the Hedgehog #3—Cover B: Jen Hernandez
Ian Flynn (w) • Jen Hernandez (a & c)
*Retailers: See your order form for incentive information.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
*Expected in-store date: 4/18/18

*Retailer incentives:
Order 10 copies, get one free variant cover by Nathalie Fourdraine!
Order 25 copies, get one free variant cover featuring the characters from the issue by Jamal Peppers!

Finally, in Sonic the Hedgehog #4, Sonic runs into the biggest band of Badniks yet when he turns up to another town. But the heat is about to turn up as Blaze the Cat joins the fray, and there’s a new hero debut in the form of Tangle the Lemur!

Sonic the Hedgehog #4—Cover A: Tyson Hesse
Ian Flynn (w) • Evan Stanley (a) • Tyson Hesse (c)
Sonic comes across a town under attack from the biggest Badnik force he’s ever seen. Luckily, help is on the way from his old friend Blaze, as well as a new hero! Get ready for the debut of Tangle!
*Retailers: See your order form for incentive information.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Expected in-store date: 4/25/18
Sonic the Hedgehog #4—Cover B: Evan Stanley
Ian Flynn (w) • Evan Stanley (a & c)
*Retailers: See your order form for incentive information.
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
Expected in-store date: 4/25/18

*Retailer incentives:
Order 10 copies, get one free variant cover by Nathalie Fourdraine!
Order 25 copies, get one free variant cover featuring the characters from the issue by Tyson Hesse!

More information was also given on Tangle in particular. She can use her tail multiple ways, for example like a whip or a fist. She’s also a real scrapper of a fighter who loves fighting baddies, hence why she’s named Tangle. See the below image gallery for more art of her!

It’s a new beginning, and a very exciting time to be in the Sonic comic scene! We’ll have more information on all of these issues, as well as Sonic the Hedgehog #2, closer to their release dates. Prepare your calendars for April!

Sources: Newsarama, IGN

 

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50 Comments

  1. Oh joy, more OCs… Can’t we just have a comic that focuses on the main game cast, and doesn’t create two dozen more characters that won’t be relevant to anything outside the comics?

    1. Agreed. Like the games don’t have already more than enough characters for the adaptations to use.

      1. She doesn’t appear until the #4 issue dude, issue #1 establishes Tails, Amy in issue #2, and Kunckles in #3.

        I know the covers are all pretty but you should read the solicits too.

        1. Seriously, it’s nothing but gripes on this site. You don’t even have a genuine reason to be tired of this character yet. XP

        2. You misjudge me: I’m fine with having OCs. Heck, some of my all-time favourite characters are comic-exclusive OCs! 😀

          I will admit though that my post didn’t make this clear 😉

    2. Why do fans hate so much new characters? It’s the reason newer games only had Sonic playable, and then fans begged to have other playable characters, I’d never thought Shadow would be playable again in Forces.
      We NEED new characters for the comic.

    3. No because that will get boring real fast without enough support cast to help keep it going. They will have to take liberties somewhere whether you like it or not. Although I agree that these characters may never appear in game, I will like to give benefit of the doubt as this is no longer following rules that were set for Archie. reaching?yes, but nothing is ruled out either

    4. Literally just the other day you said:

      “Any additional focus on someone other than Sonic and Eggman is always a plus for me.”
      Source: bit.ly/2BqtMVx

      Y’know at this point I believe you’re desperately trying to find ways to hate the comic for the sake of hating the comic. Just stop trying to be a contrarian and learn to enjoy things for once.

      And stop calling them “OCs”. It’s just a cheap way to try and degrade new characters just because they’re not part of the main games. Amy Rose initially appeared in the 1992 Sonic manga, so does that make her an “OC” too?

      1. No, I’m talking about new additions that the comics keep churning out, as opposed to the normal game cast. It was a problem with the Genesis Wave soft reboot as well. They had finally trimmed a bunch of the series’ fat, but then they decided to introduce a ton of new characters to try and fill the void. And before we knew it, it was cluttered all over again.

        It extends to the games as well. The stories always seems to focus more on whatever oneoff character they introduce instead of building on already established characters and fleshing them out.

        Who cares what Infinite the Edgelord’s backstory is? Give me some proper development and growth for someone like Tails or Amy please. Give me more reason to care about the characters that have been around for over two decades, instead of trying to make us invested in someone who won’t stick around outside of spinoffs.

    5. It’s one original character.

      One.

      A comic is going to have it’s own original characters and from what we can see this won’t be different. The first 4 issues look to feature Sonic (duh), Tails, Knuckles, Blaze and maybe Amy. So the focus largely remains on the core cast as it should.

    6. So… you’re reading the Sonic comics, it’s own separate canon, comic canon, and hoping it doesn’t create new characters for its series..?

      1. I was personally hoping they’d do stuff with the entire game cast before pushing the new characters, but nah, issue three is when we get to see new faces and in issue four we get the new Sally Acorn.

        30 plus characters in the games and they can’t even handle using just four of them before pushing for their FCs to take center stage.

    7. Because god forbid the comic world tries to flesh out the world with more than just the main cast, lol

  2. COOL!!!!!! That lemur might be a replacement for Sally Acorn, I hated the thought that they might actually remove the freedom fighters, but I guess I’m Cool with it now?!

  3. I know they all work independently in this business, but it warms my heart to see so many familiar names in the credits for these comics. It’s like a team reuniting after so long…

  4. Tangle -> Sally 3.0
    Resistance -> Freedom Fighters 2.0

    I’m done, I had such high hopes for this comic but now it looks so much like Archie 2.0 that I want nothing to do with it.

    Is it to much to ask for Sonic to be an independent character that don’t need a woman to tell him what to do or how to do it?

    I don’t even like how they framing it as Amy asking Sonic to rejoin the resistance in isue two only to get told off, but in issue four Tangle will ask and he’s all for it just to be around her empowered female presence some more.

    All I wanted was a comic with no romance. Just good old action, adventure and friendship.

    So why, why can’t I have that?

    1. Because your opinion alone does not dictate what kind of story IDW and Sega want to tell and are going to tell.

      Unlike “some” people, I happen to take and like and “appreciate” a lot of stuff they do with Sonic.

      All I want, just like a bunch of other people, is to have and read a Sonic comic.

    2. “Is it to much to ask for Sonic to be an independent character that don’t need a woman to tell him what to do or how to do it?”

      Are you actually serious?

    3. Actually, hang on. You have no reason to suspect that Tangle has any romantic relationship with Sonic. You just saw her, thought “new female character = Sally 3.0” and then used that to justify a possible romance. Sally wasn’t even a romantic interest character when Archie rebooted the series so you don’t have much going here.

      You seem to have some serious women issues from reading your comment so maybe deal with that first.

  5. I approve of this character. I think it’s a good design and a cool animal they haven’t used yet.

  6. I picture her being the first butch of the series and being voiced by Cristina Vee using her Cerebella voice.

  7. Whine,bitch and moan jeez I don’t get what you’re all upset t about. You think this is going be like the modern games, last time I checked most of the people hate modern games and their stories. Some of the old Comics at least have decent some decent character development for sonic and his main friends. Did you really think they’re going to have just the five main characters and shadow checkout sonic boom. Main point, don’t like it, don’t read it or buy it and rage cry like good Sonic fanboys.

  8. The comic is adapting forces and some new characters is what ppl are complaining about? Oooookaay.
    What does that ordering thing evn mean? Like if the regular covers are justYardley art and comic shops won’t get in the (much better) variants I doubt I’n gonna be getting it.

  9. Anyone wanna know what happens when a story focuses on the same group of characters over and over and over, forever?

    You get Mario. You get a hollow, empty husk of nothingness.

    Bring on the new characters!

  10. She may look like a Sally replacement, but Tangle, from the sound of her personality, is different to Sally. Sally was always more level headed, and often butted heads with Sonic on how to handle a situation. Tangle on the other hand sounds like a punch first ask questions later kind of gal, and from what I can see on one of the alternate covers, she’d be more likely to be right on board with Sonic’s ideas, rather than clash with him, based on the interaction with him. And again, while Sally could brawl, she was more acrobatic and used her opponents momentum against them. Tangle will likely be one to smash into her opponents, and use her acrobatic skills if punching them with her fists or smashing with her tail doesn’t work. Time will tell on that one.

    As for critiques on how fast the characters are introduced, what did you honestly expect? Three issues in, and then the new characters with Rough & Tumble star coming in. That is actually quite a bit of restraint there. I doubt even the Sonic Boom comic lasted that long before it introduced it’s new characters. AOSTH was probably the only one that was the exception back in the day with most of it’s original characters being exclusive to a few episodes. SatAM, Sonic the Comic, Sonic Underground, and the aforementioned Archie Sonic all had their own original characters.

    Actually, I have a challenge for the whiners. Why don’t YOU write YOUR OWN stories, with ONLY game characters, and make about 25 COMPLETE stories as either comics, novellas, or what have you? Make them all UNIQUE, no copy and paste stuff? You think it’s so easy to use JUST the game cast, and ONLY the recurring ones, NO original/fan characters of your own creation, why don’t YOU do it? Stop bitching and moaning about the comics doing it, and put your money where your mouths are if you all think you’re so much more clever than the people who do it for a living?

    Doubt anyone will take my challenge to heart or seriously though, but the challenge has been laid down. Especially since it’s getting out of hand with those who complain but don’t try to show the pros how it’s done… Yeesh…

    1. Actually, the Sonic Boom comic waited until the 11th and final issue to introduce new characters, not counting the Worlds Unite crossover, so Boom actually had a LOT of restraint when introducing OCs to its universe.

    2. Given that the Sonic franchise has 15 close characters to Sonic and a grand total of over a hundred if you find count the background characters and five unique villains there is simply no reason to introduce new characters so soon.

      Especially not one that is billed as being a new main character that will without a doubt take away time and spotlight from characters that the majority of fans wants to read about.

      But what do I know, it’s not the ton of characters pushed after the Archie reboot ended up driving away readers now is it.

  11. I’m seeing so many people loosing their shit over a new comic getting *GASP* new characters. It’s ridiculous, it’s literally fearing and resisting something new, a problem that the fan base really seems to have a lot of the time I’ve noticed. How about you just try actually getting to know these characters and any other new ones that are coming out (Flynn never once pretended like he wouldn’t make new characters, I don’t know where this outrage is coming from) before immediately deciding that they’re ruining everything?

    1. Why do they think only the fans of a franchise can create new characters and not the actual owners of a franchise.

      It’s just baffling to me…

  12. hey jackasses most of you are doing what everyone says sonic fans do COMPLAINING ABOUT STUPID SHIT THAT BARELY MATTERS because we all know it’s gonna turn out good in the end name me one good sonic comic story that didn’t have a comic only character in it, the game explore the backstory and characters of the main cast and they’ll probably be better represented in the comics when has ian let us down quit being paranoid

  13. I sound out of place here, but I actually liked the Freedom Fighters. I thought the Archie world (up to the soft-reboot) was pretty well fleshed out and the additional characters added depth to the world. If all people want is “official” characters only, I can see this becoming really dull – through no fault of the writers or anybody else.

    Quite frankly, I liked that in the older days there wasn’t as many restrictions on how to do things. Nowadays it feels too “safe”.

    1. The issue with the new characters in the Archie post-boot was that most just weren’t given the time necessary to make them more than just Adjective the Species.

      1. I feel like they probably would have had more development if the series hadn’t ended so abruptly…

        1. And had the Shattered World Crisis saga not been rushed after Worlds Unite (which I understand was an editorial decision, not a writers’ decision). On that note, we could also have done without Worlds Unite.

  14. The characters have always been the best bit about Sonic, so fine by me. Genuinely seen one person on here complain that she’s a feminist! Thing: anyone else think on the cover for #4 Sonic’s face looks a bit odd?

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