Sonics AllGirl Story Is A Step Towards Equity That Falls Flat

Sonic’s All-Girl Story Is A Step Towards Equity That Falls Flat

IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog series hasn’t spent enough time fleshing out more compelling and strong-willed female heroes and issue #45 is proof.

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Sonics AllGirl Story Is A Step Towards Equity That Falls Flat

Warning: contains spoilers for Sonic the Hedgehog #45!

IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog series just launched a brand-new story arc that focuses entirely on female heroes for the first time in the main continuity. This is a major milestone for the franchise, especially one whose most famous and ubiquitous characters tend to be male. Unfortunately, this crucial first issue falls flat – even before crossing the starting line.

Outside of the main Sonic series, IDW previously published the Tangle & Whisper miniseries, which stars two female characters, the titular lemur and wolf respectively, who attempt to take down the dastardly octopus-like assassin Mimic. Unfortunately, the most compelling character in that miniseries, Whisper is glaringly absent in Sonic the Hedgehog #45 by writer and artist Evan Stanley. The Whisper-free story follows Amy Rose, Tangle the Lemur, Jewel the Beetle, and Belle the Tinkerer as their planned girls’ night out camping goes south when a fire breaks out in an area suffering from a severe drought.

Aside from her insanely cool weaponry that’s enigmatically powered by her Wisp companions, Whisper is such a strong character because of her tragic past and the way in which the pain from those experiences affects her in the present day. As a result, the lone wolf only whispers whenever she decides to break away from her usual reticence and, even then, she rarely speaks in complete sentences. Whisper is so unsure of herself that she usually has a pained look on her face, yet her friends rarely see this or any expression as she usually hides behind her mask. And yet, her prowess as a fighter is so legendary she has an epic alias: Guardian Angel of the Battlefield. All of this intrigue is lost in IDW’s all-girl story because she apparently left to hunt Mimic alone.

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Without Whisper to anchor the story, what’s left is an assortment of subpar characters who haven’t been fleshed out enough to warrant any excitement and, worse, are portrayed as weak, clumsy heroes, especially when contrasted with Sonic. The overly enthusiastic and adventure-hungry Tangle, whose strength causes more harm than good, is only effective when she’s paired with her polar opposite – Whisper. Jewel is apparently a leader, yet she’s proven herself both incapable of leading on the battlefield and so irresponsible that she’s willing to give up her title just so she can drop paperwork onto others. The only captivating character is the two-left-footed Belle the Tinkerer.

Meanwhile, the group’s strongest warrior Amy Rose constantly makes a fool of herself every time she tries to woo Sonic as he perpetually spurns her advances. While Sonic comes across as a colossal jerk as a result, Amy Rose’s repeated failed advances portray her as a character who not only doesn’t respect herself but is either unaware of what she wants or is just delusional. The fact that she isn’t affected by his constant dismissals proves either she’s too naïve to comprehend that he’s mistreating her or that she doesn’t actually have any deep feelings for Sonic and yet continues to fling herself at him because she thinks she does.

Ironically, the strongest female characters in the Sonic universe have yet to appear in IDW’s main continuity, including Princess Sally Acorn. In addition to the mechanized Bunnie Rabbot-D’Coolette and the A.I. Nicole who’s essentially Sonic’s version of JARVIS, Sally possesses the leadership that Jewel lacks, is portrayed as a graceful and capable fighter unlike Amy Rose and Tangle, and who’s not defined by her relationship with Sonic the Hedgehog like how Belle is with Dr. Eggman. Instead, Sally’s interactions with the Blue Blur actually make him a better and humbler character. Where are strong female characters like them in an all-girl story like this?

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Link Source : https://screenrant.com/idw-sonic-hedgehog-strongest-female-character-missing/

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