Sonic the Hedgehog, Vol. 15: Urban Warfare

Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW)

by Ian Flynn, Adam Bryce Thomas (Artist), Thomas Rothlisberger (Artist)

Dr. Eggman's new capital city is expanding and only Sonic and his friends can stop it! On a recon mission with the new Diamond Cutters—Tangle, Whisper, and Lanolin—Sonic discovers that the Eggperial City is harnessing the resources around it to grow ever larger. The Diamond Cutters are still getting the hang of working together which leads to trouble when they get trapped. Alone against an army of badniks and a self-replicating city, Sonic calls for back-up and gets more than he bargained Tails, Amy, Blaze, and Silver all answer the call, but Shadow, Rouge, and Omega arrive for their own reasons too! While the Diamond Cutters have to have an emotional break-through to escape, Sonic and Tails coordinate a horde of heroes to try to bring the city down! Collects Sonic the Hedgehog issues #57–61.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

122 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 25, 2023

Reviews

[Nico · Rating 3 out of 5]

this volume is a bit of a letdown for the plot. for the most part, the story largely just feels like it's wrapping up the scraps the eggperial city arc
but the last volume was also a story that felt like it was wrapping up the scraps of the arc, so even though this arc may not be super long, it just feels like its kept going and going even after its over. so here, eggman is... still not defeated and now the city itself is out to get the heroes and they gotta stop it from growing. its serviceable, but not great. the best stuff is early on when it focuses on the resistance, the new diamond cutters, named after whisper's dead team, and led by a (kind of) new character, lanolin. theres some good character drama between them, even after sonic loses them to a trap and we get some the start of an arc to lanolin growing as a leader... until she gets (spoilers from here on out) captured halfway through and the book focuses on tangle from that point onward for some reason... and she only escaped the trap because she could phase through the walls as a side effect of the trap the diamond cutters were in. admittedly it leads to a fun issue where she's on the run from metal sonic and trying to meet up with sonic and the gang. it seemed like tangle was gonna go through a mini character arc once lanolin and whisper were captured, and she got to see sonic captured too while she was held at gunpoint by eggman, but then, and this is what soured me on this volume, everyone just escaped the traps off screen with no explanation, then shadow teleports the city somewhere, the end. its a pretty bad ending. that ended up feeling very rushed. it's very easy to see when evan stanley took over for the rest of the arc, because it stopped feeling like there was much of a plan for the direction of this volume. i dont want to sound like im blaming evan stanley for ruining this arc or anything, it feels like she may have just got a half finished arc handed to her and was told to finish it, but there was that disconnect between the first few issues and the last few.

the art though, top notch, some of the best for idw sonic and that is some high praise, the motion, the action, the flow, the style, the colors, its all phenomenal, no complaints there

its not a bad arc, theres plenty of cool moments, fun moments, funny moments, and again the insanely good art. i just wish it had a better sense of direction for its story and an ending that wasnt so bad.

[haley ⊹ · Rating 4 out of 5]

realistically this storyline is like 3 stars but idc because we were FED. silver and blaze came back... tangle came back... shadow and sonic being gay together again... ROUGE... team dark!!!!.... silver and shadow interacted... and to top it all off they got the literal lesbian flag behind tangle and whisper which ?!?!?!?!? this was a time

[Timothy Pitkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is nice seeing Tangle and Whisper get some more time to shine as they are pretty cool characters and I do like that most of this is a fight scene as it gives all members of Sonic's friends a time to shine granted it is kind of boring to read but still nice moments and I like seeing some characters tag team like Amy and Silver.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't found the last few volumes that impressive, all told, but with Surge and Kit in the rear view mirror for a while, we can get things back on track with a big ol' brawl between all of Team Sonic and an entire city itself.

This feels like the arc that should have ended with #50 in terms of impact, breadth, and just plain fun. There's no time for whining or moaning about how sad we all are, just a lot of badnik smashing and Eggman bashing, plus we get to see some characters we haven't seen for a while, like Shadow and Omega.

I know Sonic can't be like this all the time, and I don't need it to be, but when it does do these big End Of Game style fight arcs, it really does make me smile.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

while definitely weaker than the last volume as the eggperial city arc finishes here, im giving it a high rating bc i wouldnt be lying if i said i JUMPED and WHOOPED in joy when i saw silver and blaze reappear, TEAM DARK !?!?! joined in as well, sonic and shadow interactions, and silver and shadow BOTH had their hero moments 🙏🙏🙏SO GOOD. lets be real that last spread with shadow using chaos control was 👏👌

the action was great! and i enjoyed all the characters and dialogue between them soo yeah!!! 5 STARS for all of that hehe

[Fazli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good moments for the new Diamond Cutters, and I'm happy we have a character like Lanolin who is all business; it works for the current dynamic of the restoration.

This battle with Eggman felt odd; it felt like such a huge threat that was introduced and resolved by the end of this volume. For how bad things could've gotten, it sure felt like it was resolved too quickly.

[D.T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Lanolin's design! She's a cow, right?

Character development for Whisper here! Same ol Sonic fighting baddies/badniks as usual.

[Rayhan dinkleberry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the cast of characters they choose for this arc.