DC x Sonic the Hedgehog #1 – The Fast & The Furry-ious

DC x Sonic the Hedgehog #1 teams everyones favorite blue hedgehog Sonic and his pals with the iconic superheroes of the DCU as they must join forces to stop Darkseid invasion of Sonic’s Earth.

The premise is fairly simple: Darkseid has crossed dimensions looking to obtain the Ragna Rock, a power source from Sonic’s world that could enable his quest fo the Anti-Life Equation. Like any Apokolips invasion the first to arrive is the Parademons, which Sonic, Amy, and Tails encounter prior to the arrival of the Justice League. The first encounter is between Sonic and The Flash, in which Flash mistakes Sonic for the 5th Dimension imp Krakkl, a great deep cut reference.

For a book geared toward readers of Sonic’s adventures,  Flynn does a good job of introducing members of the League by having them help there Sonic counterparts, Amy and Tails are helped by Wonder Woman and Cyborg, Shadow first meets Batman, Green Lantern fights with Silver, and Superman helps Knuckles. The issue avoids the common trope of the two groups first fighting each other before realizing they have have a common goal.

There is a lot of exposition as the heroes get to know each other, that for older readers will probably be a bit on the nose but would work well for readers unfamiliar with either properties.

The two instances that stand out as feeling off is the Batman / Shadow exchange as Shadow doesn’t want to help but Batman confides and tells him he identifies with the way he feels, unsurprisingly convincing Shadow to help out. The second instance that felt off was when Superman smashes Kalibak and Knuckles says “Thanks Superman” even though they had no interactions / introduction prior to the scene.

Thomas’s designs of the Justice Leaguers are more on the cartoonish side but work well with the Sonic characters.