ICYMI: A Fresh Blast of New Stories Begin in Sonic the Hedgehog #62

Sonic the Hedgehog #62 arrives exactly as promised. It’s a short and sweet single-issue story that touches on unwrapped plot beats from issues prior in a way that’s extremely reader-friendly. It also sets up a ‘B’ plot that promises to permeate throughout this mini-arc. While simple in execution and fluffy in depth, that simplicity makes it a sweet and enjoyable read.

The story follows Amy Rose as she travels to Angel Island in order to return an ancient artifact that had been recovered from one of Robotnik’s vault rooms. After joining up with Knuckles, the two go through a dangerous yet extremely fun adventure around Angel Island in order to return to safety. In the meantime, Mimic works to infiltrate the Restoration and finally achieve revenge against Tangle and Whisper.

This book shines best in its small character moments. Nothing about either of these two plots is all that exciting, engaging, or thematic, but that’s not what the book is necessarily trying to be. Its goal is to first and foremost please and create fans of these characters through simple and relationship-driven narratives.

Amy’s venture to Angel Island is a key example of this, her and Knuckles sharing cute and enriching moments with one another as they visit nostalgic locales from the games. Mimic’s story plays inside baseball with a very, very basic revenge plot tale that has the potential to radically shift the character into something completely brand new just as they were beginning to become one note.

The art is colorful and continues to fit the aesthetic of Sonic’s world well, while still able to have its own voice as a vessel for storytelling. There are some scenes and splashes in this book that are rendered especially well, the Angel Island tale standing out for its scenery and splashes specifically. On the flip side, emotions and character beats are rendered quite well under Rothlisberger’s penciling.