Sonic the Hedgehog IDW: Amy's 30th Anniversary Special - Reader Reaction & Review

[MetalSkulkBane]

So it's out now. The 30th anniversary of the classic Sonic CD, deadly Metal Sonic and one and only rosiest of rascals, Amy Rose.

.... Anyone else is not very impressed? Like really-really not impressed?

 

The story makes the same mistake as 900th Special or "Urban Warfare". Too many characters, too few pages, so in the end no one does anything.

The basic premise is: Eggman has captured everyone so it's up to Amy to save them and defeat Metal Sonic. She keeps reading cards about the positive traits of people she meets, but Twists! She's the super amazing and all-around great heroine cards were talking around. A bit self-indulgent, but works.

Amy starts her adventure and proves she's a great heroine by... hiding from Metal and opening two completely unguarded cages. Third has guards, but her Flicky does the (literal) heavy lifting. It wasn't even her idea.

I'm not impressed so far but waaaait. Amy Rose? Young untrained flyer? Big strong but gentle guy? It's Team Rose! Amy is about to team up with two under-looked individuals and lead them as they prove their worth. Amy will be a kind supportive leader, Ray will prove he HAHAHA, kidding. This team is a joke. Ray does NOTHING in this story. If only there was a moment when a flyer would be needed to save Bark from the cage... I'm sure Flicky needed that scene more.

Final Battle. Amy tells Sonic to focus on saving animals. Not because she has a plan, but because we need another character to not do anything important. Amy can't be outshined in her own special and sadly it would been rrrreally easy. In the end Metal Sonic, (who I'm sure was meant to be a scary boogeyman, but comes off as an incompetent doofus) falls for the simplest trap, while Fang pretends he did something.  Happy 30th anniversary, Metal.

The small size of Classic Sonic finally caught up, so the story feels like "Season of Chaos" but severely watered down. Art is fine, (Flicky opening cage is funny), but not enough to save the issue. And new zones are extremely generic.

 

Am I too harsh? Probably, but it's 3rd special in a row that disappointed me and with the main book "Mimic Mistakes" I'm really not impressed with IDW's recent output.

[JezMM]

Wow yeah I'm shocked at how negatively you felt about it.  I really enjoyed this special - it was a simple story but the unconventional cast was a fun little running gag even if the characters themselves didn't do much, Amy had a good mix of competence and childishness.  A lot of good little funny moments and gag expression work that made me laugh.  It was just a lighthearted little romp which I think is perfectly fitting for a Classic Amy story.  I don't see why there needs to be significant character work or Amy needs to "prove" anything.  A fun little comedy adventure can just be that.  I got some real Tyson Hesse animated shorts vibes from the whole thing and it was just a fun little read.

[Scape]

9 hours ago, MetalSkulkBane said:

Final Battle. Amy tells Sonic to focus on saving animals. Not because she has a plan, but because we need another character to not do anything important.

how does opening all of these not count as something important?

[MetalSkulkBane]

9 hours ago, Scape said:

how does opening all of these not count as something important?

Because literally anybody can do that, including a Flicky?
Because you can release the little animals AFTER taking down homicidal robot?
Because if Fang didn't showed up Amy had no plan how to take Metal down? Clearly neither her or Ray were up to the challenge and Bark seemed to be already down.

You wanna make opening capsules important? Let her find Tails, not Sonic. Make her go "find Sonic, we can't win without him. I'll slow Metal somehow" and then three underdogs working together against Eggman best robot would be decent climax. Ooooor Amy has a plan and leads army, destroying Metal using hundreds of cute animals. Maybe remake that "Doctor Doom defeated by squirrel girl" panel. Those are two way climax could been improved. I get that Amy's no match for Metal, I wouldn't want her to prove herself with only brute strength. But what we got is most generic way you could defeat Metal Sonic (and I though it's his birthday too).

 

Side note, if they plan to make another special in 2 years, I have a suggestion: Eggman & Metal special. Let them fight Battle Armada or something. I know, I know, it's not a round anniversary for either of them, but it's not like Classic Chaotix can get their own special, they are not in same league as Core Cast (and may not exist. That way we have 5 classic specials in a row and then we can go for 35th anniversary round. (Then again, I think Classic Universe is just too small to repeat this party for ever).

[Kuzu]

I thought it was a cute little story, and that's all it really needed to be. Every one of these comics doesn't need to be some deep character study to be worthwhile. 

[StreetSonic2022]

It was a nice, cute story for Amy, trying to make sure she's not damsel in distress when she first debuted in the series.

Also:

Spoiler

One of the capsules hold Honey and... Vector!

 

[MetalSkulkBane]

Well, glad everyone else had a good time. I just feel with some simple tweaks story could been so much better, but if that's all you guys needs for Amy to do in for her own Anniversary, who am I to spoil the fun.

[TangleTangerine]

I'm dying to contribute to this thread as I want to see if your view marries up to mine. However, IDW (or logistics) has completely butchered the Australian release of physical copies. It is 3 days after release and no one has been able to stock it as no one has copies!

[MetalSkulkBane]

2 hours ago, TangleTangerine said:

I'm dying to contribute to this thread as I want to see if your view marries up to mine. However, IDW (or logistics) has completely butchered the Australian release of physical copies. It is 3 days after release and no one has been able to stock it as no one has copies!

I take it you're not into digital?

[TangleTangerine]

I'm into digital for back issues or if I want to read on the go. However I like collecting and reading the physical copies. Plus I have money down on that issue and I don't want to double up as physical comic prices here in Australia are double the cover price plus a dollar 

 

 

(Idk how to quote posts on mobile sorry)

[Red Hot Jack]

I just read it. I wasn't really motivated to read it immediately, because it's just some episodic story that's more or less in line with the previous anniversary comics, but I enjoyed it all the way through now.

Metal Sonic is the only downside to this, he doesn't have any cool moments, he just gets captured, and the biggest credit here is he kidnapped all the guys including Sonic but wasn't shown, so... he still gets the short end of the stick even though he is the main baddie here.

Amy shines though. I love the tarots being part of the story, that she can't read them, she can't guess who is in the capsule because they were talking about her not someone to find.

I also thought the SA2 dialogue was nice and even the flicky accompanying Amy was a nod to SA1 maybe, I enjoyed that too a lot. Amy is still very much a "help defenseless creatures" type, see even Lost World with the critters and the kocos in Frontiers of course.

Somehow I missed Honey and Vector... damn.

All in all, it's a delicious story with no continuity or complex plot, but it's classic fun so it doesn't have to be, it's just carefully made and entertaining, everything the Sonic 30th comic was but with Amy shining, there is even a minor connection (more like consistency) with Superstars, "Fang the Hunter" once again is the official title according to Metal Sonic's data.