The adventures continue as the Restoration comes under attack from Clutch! While the Phantom Rider (he sure looks familiar…) causes mayhem on the racetrack, deep inside the Restoration’s ship, Tails and Amy investigate who sabotaged their gear! And how is Clutch involved? Jewel aims to find out and enlists the help of Tangle and Whisper. Meanwhile, the Chaotix are missing with some important information. Looking for them, Tails, Amy, and Belle get caught by Clutch and his minions. As the action heats up, the team will have to come together to stop Clutch and save Central City! Volume 19 collects Sonic the Hedgehog issues #72–75.
Collision Course provides resolution for multiple story arcs (beyond that of Clean Sweep Inc) and a teaser for what is to come. The abundance of action and subplots to follow left little room for deeper character moments, but hopefully that’ll be made up for in the next volume.
For another positive, I enjoyed the sense of atmosphere in the art: the story takes place mostly in the sky and could have been visually bland as a result, but changes in weather and time of day keep the backdrops interesting.
It seems to be a Thing with big Sonic anniversary issues that they just don't hit the way I want them to. There was a lot of build-up to issue 50, and that went off like a deflated balloon, and issue 75 doesn't really do much more.
This volume is the culmination of the racing arc that's run through the last volume or so with the Phantom Rider stuff, and it's just...okay. There's nothing major going on, Clutch is a kind of one-note bad guy so far, and I could really do with never seeing the Sonic Riders bad guys ever again after this.
Onwards and upwards at least. Now we're on the road to 100!