IDW Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 13

IDW Sonic the Hedgehog Issue 13 is the thirteenth issue in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series published by IDW Publishing.

Official solicitation

 * Time for a break! Sonic can finally take some time to catch his breath, secure in the fact that the day's been saved and his old greatest foe is... Wait. He's gone?! What does that...? Well, that smells like trouble...


 * The return of Rough and Tumble!
 * Sonic faces a new threat that kicks off year two with a bang!
 * Extra-length issue!

Calling Card

 * Written by: Ian Flynn
 * Art by: Adam Bryce Thomas
 * Colors by: Matt Herms
 * Letters by: Shawn Lee
 * Assistant Editor: Megan Brown
 * Editor: David Mariotte
 * Special thanks to: Anoulay Tsai, Mai Kiyotaki, Aaron Webber, Michael Cisneros, Sandra Jo, and everyone at Sega for their invaluable assistance

Synopsis
Sonic is relaxing on a beach talking with a Flicky about recent events. According to him, Amy is currently working alongside some citizens as a new group called the "Restoration", Knuckles is still on Angel Island protecting the Master Emerald, Silver, after deciding to stay in the Sonic's present, is still trying to find the source from the future and Tails has occupied himself with one of his new projects. While Sonic expresses exasperation over how everyone is still working despite Dr. Eggman reforming and Metal Sonic being de-weaponized. Sonic is soon interrupted by Tails who tells him that he believes something is wrong. Tails hands Sonic a letter he received at his workshop out of nowhere. The letter detailed about how Windmill Village will celebrate the return of "the world's most brilliant doctor". The letter makes Sonic curious if Eggman had written the letter, even though he was seemingly still amnesiac. Tails suggests that they look into the situation right away, to which Sonic agrees.

Meanwhile in the Final Egg, Eggman is preparing for testing his new machine, as Dr. Starline enters. He informs him that Sonic has been successfully baited, while admitting confusion of being overt as an ambush would have been more sufficient. Eggman explains that he is doing it to mess with Sonic as per the suggestion of Starline himself. He reminds Starline that he is being subtle with this trap when his end goal will be a global proclamation. Starline then takes a look at Eggman's new machine. As the machine is activated, it spills a liquid that transforms a flower into metal. As Starline is happy for the success of the transmutation, Eggman finds only disappointment as the processed wood did not suffer from the effects. Stating he needs more data, he tells Starline to bring him animals.

Sonic and Tails arrive at Windmill Village, not noticing anything threatening around. However, they do notice that there are no villagers around, leading Tails to wonder if Eggman had kidnapped them. Sonic suggests that Eggman would not do that without causing property damage. The duo soon find a tied up Elder Scruffy hanging from a tree. They release the elder, who tells them that two thugs kidnapped "Mr. Tinker" and returned to lock up every villager in the community center. Sonic knowing that Eggman was not faking his reformation pleased him but quickly asked how long ago he was kidnapped. Scruffy tells them that he was kidnapped at least a week ago, though no one was able to tell Sonic in time. Scruffy tells Tails that he had never seen the thugs before but believed that they were still around the village. Tails asks for descriptions and names but finds that he does not have to look to far for answers as Rough and Tumble reveal themselves to the three, sporting new weapons to boot. While Tails finds confusion in their choice of rhymes, Sonic recalls fighting the skunk brothers before with Knuckles at Barricade Town. Sonic asks Tails to help Elder Scruffy release the villagers while he takes on the Rough and Tumble.

Rough angrily tells Sonic not to look down on them, reminding him that he won with the help of Wisps. Tumble adds that they wish to fight Knuckles as well. Sonic tells them that Knuckles has better things to do than to waste time fighting them. He then demands to know where Eggman is, Spin Attacking Tumble's new mechanical tail. He also asks if Eggman was the one to bust them out of jail, to which Rough denies. With his new machinery, the Vapor Condenser, Rough then shoots a capsule of odoriferous liquid at Sonic, which the hedgehog narrowly dodges. Sonic cannot make sense of the situation as he believes the skunk brothers are not smart enough to build themselves new weapons and are not subtle enough to send cryptic letters. Sonic considers recruiting the Chaotix again but asks the skunk brothers to save him the trouble by telling him what he wants to know. Rough tells Sonic that he may let him know the details if he managed to beat them in a battle, which Tumble did not agree to. Tails manages to unlock the community center door to release the villagers but requests for Elder Scruffy to stay with the villagers until the battle with Rough and Tumble is over.

Elsewhere, Eggman looks over his collected vertebrate specimens. In his machine, the liquid is poured on a Pocky. It immediately transmutates, becoming metallic and obedient. The doctor orders the Pocky to grab the neighboring Picky, to which it does without fail. It is then told to move away, allowing Eggman and Starline to see the slower spread of the virus on the Picky. Eggman also sees that the infected Pocky started to display violent tendencies without a direction. Starline helps move samples into position so that Eggman can carry out test four. He orders a frightened Ricky to pick up the infected flower he poured liquid on earlier and tap it on the provided samples: a sandwich, a Moto Bug head and a rock. The infection does not work on any of these but it does pass from the flower to the Ricky, completing Eggman's test five. He declares his new Metal Virus complete. He explains that at the slightest exposure, the virus will spread across organic tissue, turning that organism into his robotic slave. According to Eggman, inorganic or processed material remains inert, leaving him safe from infection.

Starline expresses joy in working with Eggman, as he had never dreamed of doing it when he was searching for the doctor. Eggman asks Starline how he found him as Metal Sonic was doing the same thing using at least half of the Eggman Empire. Starline points out that Metal Sonic sent out Badnik search parties, which only had a finite amount of sensors. However, Starline has the Warp Topaz, which the platypus used to open "windows" to the world in an instant. Starline did this for a lengthy amount of time until he found Eggman, believing his work to be worth it. Eggman expresses gladness in this and asks Starline to help zoom in on Sonic's fight against the skunk brothers using the Warp Topaz.

As Sonic is hit by one of Rough's capsules, Tails joins in and kicks the skunk's head. He lets Sonic know the villagers are safe. Tumble attacks them and demands to know why Tails is interrupting their battle, to which Sonic and Tails respond by imitating the skunk brothers' usual introduction. While Rough expresses anger in Sonic mocking their rhymes again, Tumble requests to attack Tails personally as he lost his tail but the fox cub has two. Not understanding Tumble's drama, Sonic and Tails narrowly dodge another attack from him. Sonic and Tails decide to split up, with Tails eager to fight Rough instead. Sonic mocks Tumble and has him tail behind him while Tails continues to dodge capsules shot from Rough's Vapor Condenser. Rough shoots one more at Tails, leaving the fox cub to make some quick calculations. He catches the capsule with his tail and whips it back at Rough. He suffers the effects of the putrid gas as Tails strips him of his machinery and destroys it. Eggman and Starline watch in complete disappointment. Starline asks if they should move on to test six, to which Eggman replies that there is none. Starline wonders if Eggman is serious as the data sample they have is miniscule. However, knowing that the Metal Virus works was good enough for Eggman and wanted to move on as soon as possible to the next phase of his master plan. Starline tries to add another point but is only interrupted by Eggman reminding him who the evil mastermind is. Eggman then tells Starline to keep an eye on the test subjects while he works on the next phase of his plan.

Back at Windmill Village, Sonic continues to make Tumble follow him. As Sonic runs up a structure, Tumble punches it, breaking it down. Sonic jumps to a windmill and breaks off its turbine. The turbine rolls toward Tumble, breaking off his tail attachment. Sonic attempts to land a final kick on Tumble, only to find him weeping as he finally had a tail again but it was gone once more. Sonic orders Tumble to begin walking and loses all sympathy for him when Tumble calls him heartless as all he wanted to do was "cave his head in". Sonic and the upset Tumble meet up with Rough and Tails, the latter telling Sonic he found no trouble beating the skunk. Sonic reminds Rough to keep up his end of the deal. As Rough angrily begins to tell Sonic and Tails the truth, the skunk brothers are suddenly pulled down through a portal. Sonic and Tails become confused by this. Tails begins to believe that Eggman truly is back as Rough and Tumble managed to kidnap him and they returned with new technology out of the blue. Sonic notes that someone had to have sprung Rough and Tumble from jail first and told them where Eggman was. He begins to believe that someone may be using Eggman for their own goal. Despite looks from Tails, Sonic does not want to believe the obvious. He decides to meet up with Silver to see if he managed to find anything while Tails tells Sonic that he will stay back in Windmill Village and help clean up some damage. Sonic thinks to himself how this new adventure of his is beginning to feel like how it started out with Neo Metal Sonic but chooses not to second guess Tails this time around. He declares that he will find the source of the problem and make sure their plan does not go far.

Meanwhile in the Final Egg, Rough pleads for Eggman to give him and Tumble another chance at fighting Sonic. Feeling overlooked, Metal Sonic interrupts the conversation, pushing Rough out of the way. Rough angrily tells Metal Sonic that he had his chance, only for the robot to swiftly turn around and threaten to hurt him. Eggman finds delight in Metal Sonic's determination. However, Starline requests to be next to fight Sonic as he believes he knows exactly how to strike at him.

Appearances
Characters:
 * Badnik
 * Chaotix
 * Dr. Eggman
 * Dr. Starline
 * Elder Scruffy
 * Flicky
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Metal Sonic
 * Neo Metal Sonic
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Picky
 * Pocky
 * Restoration
 * Amy Rose
 * Ricky
 * Rough the Skunk
 * Shadow the Hedgehog
 * Silver the Hedgehog
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Tumble the Skunk
 * Wisp

Locations:
 * Angel Island
 * Barricade Town
 * Final Egg
 * Silver's future
 * Windmill Village

Items:
 * Chili dog
 * Master Emerald
 * Metal Virus
 * Vapor Condenser
 * Warp Topaz

Misc.:
 * Eggman Empire
 * Spin Attack

Continuity

 * Knuckles has returned to protecting the Master Emerald on Angel Island once more as detailed in Sonic the Hedgehog #12, "The Cost of the Battle for Angel Island".
 * Silver continues to loom for clues as to why his time is still messed up, as surmised in Sonic the Hedgehog #8, "Silent Support" and Sonic the Hedgehog #12, "The Cost of the Battle for Angel Island".
 * Dr. Eggman suffering amnesia is referenced once more which was first discovered in Sonic the Hedgehog #5, "The Fate of Dr. Eggman Part 1".
 * Sonic recalls how Shadow wanted to kill Eggman in Sonic the Hedgehog #6, " The Fate of Dr. Eggman Part 2".
 * Dr. Eggman goes to work on the project he began in Sonic the Hedgehog #12, "The Cost of the Battle for Angel Island".
 * Sonic references the battle for Angel Island in Sonic the Hedgehog #9-#12.
 * Rough and Tumble have received the weapons they were promised in Sonic the Hedgehog #12, "The Cost of the Battle for Angel Island".
 * Sonic recalls fighting Rough and Tumble with Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog #3, "Fallout Part 3".
 * Sonic recalls how he and Tails were separated after saving a town in Sonic the Hedgehog #1, "Fallout Part 1".
 * Rough references Metal Sonic's attempt to destroy Sonic which spanned Sonic the Hedgehog #1-#11.

Trivia

 * The female sheep that first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog #2 appears in this issue as part of the Restoration.
 * The flower Dr. Eggman conducts his virus experiments on is a sunflower from Green Hill Zone.
 * Eggman refers to his grand scheme as his "master plan" which is a reference to his theme song "E.G.G.M.A.N." from Sonic Adventure 2.

Other features

 * Previously: Previously is a summary of previous issues' key story moments. It features a page of relevant panels from the previous issues.
 * Roll Call: Roll Call acts as a quick reference guide to new readers about the characters. This issue provides data files on Sonic, Tails, Rough, Tumble, Dr. Eggman and Dr. Starline.
 * Sonic Letters Squad: Sonic Letters Squad is a section where the comic staff can post fan artwork and fan letters that have been sent in to them.
 * Dexter's Laboratory - Free Digital Ashcan

Quotes

 * Sonic: When I'm telling people to slow down, you know something is wrong - haha!
 * Tails: Sonic! I think something is wrong!
 * Sonic: Jinxed it.


 * Rough: Prepare to get wrecked!
 * Tumble: Prepare to get pummeled!
 * Rough and Tumble: It's payback time for -ROUGH & TUMBLE!
 * Tails: ...Did they just try to rhyme "pummel" with "Tumble"?


 * Sonic: Okay, man. It's over. Let's go.
 * Tumble: Heartless. You're just heartless. All I ever wanted was to cave your head in...
 * Sonic: And just like that, my sympathy is spent.

Trivia

 * This is the first issue in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series to be an extra length issue, as it includes four more pages.
 * This issue was originally planned to release on 19 December 2018 but was delayed to 23 January 2019. It was later delayed again to 6 February 2019.
 * Cover A looks very similar to the regular cover of Sonic Universe #51.
 * The cover from the Sonic Universe issue was based on the character select from the video game Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes.
 * Cover A indicates a time limit of 13 seconds on the character select, a reference to this issue's number.
 * This is the second issue in the series to have a SEGA Shop exclusive cover, with Sonic the Hedgehog #4 being the first.