A lot of Godzilla fans bond over their first time with Godzilla, be it in a film, a video game, or some other medium. I’ve never been able to participate, as I have known of Godzilla since before my earliest memories. One of the earliest memories I can recall is the day my family got a Sega Genesis, with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as the pack-in title. I’ve been a diehard fan of the fastest thing alive ever since. It should be no surprise then that the two brands coming together is a real treat for me. However, the euphoric rush of my two favorite worlds colliding can only satisfy my appetite for so long if the quality of the product isn’t very good. Is the premier issue of IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog × Godzilla comic just a flash in the pan, or is this a story worthy of the love I’ve been channeling to Sonic and Godzilla for over 30 years?
The writers waste no time smashing giant monsters into Sonic’s world, interrupting an aerial dogfight between Sonic with friends Tails and Amy, and the nefarious Dr. Eggman by the second page. A mysterious portal opens and Mothra and Mechagodzilla step through, doing battle and seemingly not caring about their new surroundings or the denizens therein. Eggman gawks at the mechanical marvel that is Mechagodzilla and declares his intentions to analyze the technology and combine it with his own. Amy gets a gut feeling about Mothra being a morally good creature, and she tries to communicate with the great moth in the hopes of ending the fight, and any further destruction the city “Station Square.”
That’s pretty much everything. I was shocked at just how little actually happens in the comic. No Godzilla, Rodan, or Ghidorah. No Knuckles, Shadow, or Rouge. Next to no story. It feels like they could’ve accomplished the same thing with half the pages, easily. However, the clear aim of this issue is to showcase the giant monsters battling, and they did a solid job with Mothra and Mechagodzilla duking out and causing chaos.
The art in the comic is very nice. Terrific line art of Mechagodzilla, Eggman’s “Egg Hawk,” and the Station Square cityscape are highlights. Mothra’s fur is a little shaggier than usual, and her head is a little small compared to the Toho puppets from over the years, but I like her look this time around. Sonic and friends aren’t exactly the most complicated designs to tackle, but for what it’s worth they’re all brought to life very competently. There were a couple moments where the art confused me. There are two instances where Mothra (I think?) uses an attack that looks like two crests of energy crossing each other. The first time in particular, Sonic’s pose in the foreground gives off the impression that he’s using his Cross Slash skill from Sonic Frontiers. I’m still not entirely sure what’s supposed to be happening with this visual, but other than this mystery attack there was nothing art-related for me to complain about.
While Godzilla doesn’t appear in this first issue, he does appear on cover A, with art from Jack Lawrence and colors by Reggie Graham, who also handled the art and colors for the interior panels. The blue hedgehog is running toward us in the foreground, as the ferocious King of the Monsters gives Sonic a mean side-eye, and takes up most of the background, given a hot color palette courtesy of a reddened sky. Cover B by artist Mauro Fonseca plants the four Sonic characters from the book & Knuckles in the middle of a blazing Green Hill Zone, with Godzilla and Mechagodzilla igniting the scene in the background with their heat ray and eye beams, and Mothra ominously hovers between the two other giants. The art looks painted, but the Sonic characters have a heavy black outline, like they were pulled from a Sonic Shuffle cutscene. Min Ho Kim delivers striking art with cover C, depicting Mechagodzilla and Mothra seemingly teaming up to take on an enraged Godzilla in the background, as the members of Team Sonic can’t decide if they’re up for the fight or if they should sit this one out. Sonic grinding in the foreground is a wonderful touch, as is the legendary Angel Island floating off in the distance. Sadly, the only thing that doesn’t look great is Godzilla, whose hide looks rather smoothed over as if someone got a bit too aggressive with digital noise reduction. Cover D by Clayton Crain is a simple composition of Godzilla in the background firing his heat ray, with Sonic leaping toward the viewer in the foreground as he apparently dodged Godzilla’s attack. Godzilla looks alright, but Sonic looks odd here, and the angling of his right leg seems a bit off. The last cover in the in-comic gallery, cover E by Mico Suayan, sees Sonic, Tails, and Amy standing on rubble with a toppled skyscraper in the background. Godzilla’s image is reflected in the windows of the destroyed building, and he appears to be coming for our furry heroes.
Despite the gallery ending at five covers, there are even more. One is the retail incentive cover by Natalie Haines, with Sonic running up a skyscraper as Kiryu looks up after him. The Millennium Mechagodzilla is holding the GUN truck from Sonic Adventure 2 in one claw, with a great explosion obscuring nearly everything below its shins. The explosion lights up the scene, giving it a beautiful warmth. The art looks like it was done in chalk, and it’s a stunning piece of art. The other retail incentive cover by Miles Arq looks like a movie poster, with Godzilla, then Mechagodzilla, and finally Mothra all posed dramatically in the background, each higher up in the composition than the last. The Egg Mobile and the Tornado (Eggman’s flying vehicle and Sonic’s plane) buzz about like flies next to these behemoths. Sonic stands in the foreground, having just come to a screeching halt and giving his signature finger wag. Finally, Natalie Haines comes back to craft the SDCC-exclusive cover. Godzilla pokes through one of Green Hill Zone’s signature loops, causing parts of it to crack and crumble. The monster roars at a smiling Sonic, who seems rather unphased and continues trekking along the path of the loop. The environment is partial ablaze. Once again the art is down in what appears to be chalk, and the way Haines lights the subjects of her scenes with the flame gives it a wonderful glow.
Sadly, there isn’t much to discuss with this comic. What we get is fine, but it feels like much more should have been accomplished in this book. There’s still time to develop the premise, and hopefully we’ll get several pages dense with exposition in the next issue or two to make up for the lack of substance this time around. I’ve certainly seen worse crossovers, but aside from the great artwork this was a disappointment. |
