On Batman Day 2024, a short was released featuring everyone’s favorite edge lord wearing the costume of everyone’s favorite dark knight. Days after this teaser, it was announced that DC and IDW were teaming up to create a crossover mini-series between DC comics and the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. Oh, and Jazwares announced some toys featuring the Sonic characters dressed as various DC heroes. Could this miniseries have been created to promote toys? Possibly, but that’s better than the Sonic/Image crossover which acted as a backdoor pilot to a comic that was cancelled after one issue.
Sonic the Hedgehog was hanging out with his friends Miles “Tails” Prower and Amy Rose on the planet of Mobi- I mean, Sonic’s Earth when a portal opens and a ship with a strange face emerges, releasing an army of flying monsters called Parademons from it. At around the same time, Angel Island is under attack by similar forces. Knuckles the Echidna defends the island the best he can but can’t stop the Island from being sunk and has to be rescued by a certain superhero.
Sonic flees with his friends before heading off to Sunset City. Along the way, he encounters a certain red-suited speedster: the Flash. Impressed with each other’s speed, they race to the city where Silver the Hedgehog is fighting the invading forces. The Green Lantern John Stewart shows up to his aide in the air while Shadow the Hedgehog is joined by Batman in the fighting on the ground.
Once the initial Parademon threat has been repelled, the Justice League informs Sonic and his friends (and Shadow) about Darkseid, an intergalactic, and now multiversal, conqueror who has come to Sonic’s world looking a source of ultimate power: the Chaos Emeralds. The two groups pair off in teams of two and split up to find the Emeralds before Darkseid can.
If a few of my previous articles haven’t made it clear, I’m a huge Sonic the Hedgehog fan so I needed no introduction to that side of the crossover. As for the DC side, my knowledge is slightly more limited, most from the classic DCAU series such as the 90s Batman and Superman series as well as a number of assorted animated media and video games. Fortunately, that was pretty much all I needed to understand that side of the crossover.
As for how well the miniseries uses its material, it does a good enough job. There isn’t A lot of conflict between the heroic characters, only a friendly competition between Sonic and Flash and a short scene between Shadow and Batman that’s been compared to a certain scene from the first Batman/TMNT crossover. There’s even a point where the Justice League and Sonic cast switch worlds and have to take the others’ roles, like Knuckles filling in for Superman and dealing with Lex Luther and the Flash challenging the Deadly Six. My only complaint here is that I wish we had an issue each to see them in these roles, especially Shadow dealing with the Bat Family and the morality of not killing the Joker.
Like the current Sonic comic, there’s a lot of nods to the history of the franchises. I caught a number of references to the Sonic franchise, including a twofer reference to an obscure hoax character and a subtle jab at Ken Penders’ run. The ones to DC may have gone over my head but I did understand the Flash initially confusing Sonic for Krakkl and the gag with Silver listing off the absurd number of Earth Green Lanterns was amusing.
One major complaint is that the crossover is kind of silly, but that’s to be expected due to who’s involved. The idea of the barely-dressed Sonic cast donning the costumes of the Justice Leaguers is goofy considering they have no secret identities to hide. The conclusion also was a stretch due to the physics surrounding it, though it was explained that physics were breaking down. Again, I don’t think you’re supposed to be taking it seriously.
All in all, DC x Sonic the Hedgehog is a fun if flawed little crossover event featuring popular characters from the pages of comic books and the screens of video games. A sequel mini-series, DC x Sonic: The Metal Legion, started this May and looks to be just as fun as the first. This time, the two worlds are connected by gateways created by Dr. Eggman and Lex Luthor, though for what nefarious purpose? This crossover will introduce more characters from the franchises like Aquaman, Supergirl, Big the Cat, and the Chaotix, though I hope we get more interaction with the lesser characters and various rogues.
CaptObvious42 is otherwise the very definition of a nerd. He’s a fan of many things considered retro, with his biggest obsessions being science fiction series both known and obscure, detective shows mostly out of the 80’s and 90’s, video games mostly from the Genesis/SNES years, and dinosaurs.