Sonic’s Evil Replacement Proves He’s Nothing Without Tails

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Sonic the Hedgehog – Imposter Syndrome #1!

How the villain Dr. Starline built Sonic the Hedgehog‘s robotic replacement Surge the Tenrec proves that the Blue Blur actually needs Tails more than he thought.

Starline based Surge’s design on what has always been missing in every version of Metal Sonic constructed by his ex-hero Dr. Eggman. Every Metal Sonic has possessed the Blue Blur’s raw power but not the hedgehog’s personality and attitude. So Starline “installed” Sonic’s qualities into Surge, and now she’s just as cocky and brash as her living counterpart. However, Starline recognized that Sonic has some inherent flaws, and to counter them in Surge, Starline created a robot Tails called Kitsunami the Fennec for her in Sonic the Hedgehog – Imposter Syndrome #1 by writer Ian Flynn and artist Thomas Rothlisberger.

Although Starline never divulges which of Sonic’s flaws Kitsunami (aka Kit) will have to offset, it’s clear that it has something to do with how Sonic acts before he thinks (if he even thinks at all) and how he almost exclusively relies on his amazing speed to save the day. Tails, on the other hand, is much more methodical than his speedy companion and makes up for his own physical failings by employing his impressive intellect and technological prowess. Interestingly, IDW Publishing recently showcased Tails’ own capabilities enough to even overshadow Sonic when the dynamic duo attempted to stave off an attack on their Restoration headquarters from the illustrious Deadly Six, a group of off-world demons. Sonic’s role was to hold off the Deadly Six long enough for Tails to save the day with his new inventions in Sonic the Hedgehog #43 from writer Ian Flynn and artist Adam Bryce Thomas. After rendering their enemies incapacitated, Tails removed the Deadly Six from the picture by blasting them back to their home world with another one of his inventions called the Zeti Blaster.

As of now, Kit hasn’t really proven himself or had a chance to make up for Sonic’s many shortcomings that Surge has apparently inherited. When on a mission to stir up trouble, Surge straight up wreaks havoc on the population directly while Kit works from the sidelines to augment the destruction that Surge can cause. But since their creator, Dr. Starline, has been present throughout these missions as they are more of a test to see if they’re ready, Starline has been keeping Surge in check himself while giving orders to Kit. However, Surge has become a caricature of Sonic’s worst qualities by horribly mistreating Kit whenever she has the chance and shrugging off Kit’s abilities in overly hurtful manners. These negative proclivities seem completely random and out of place in IDW’s series, but not when juxtaposed with Sonic’s sins in Archie’s discontinued series. Sonic actually hurt Tails numerous times in Archie Comics by failing to take his friend’s feelings into account when pursuing his own selfish goals. When Sonic’s behavior got so bad as to negatively affect Tails’ family, Tails and Sonic actually became enemies.

IDW desperately needed this Imposter Syndrome tie-in event since nothing of consequence had really been happening for the last nearly 20 issues following the conclusion of the Metal Virus saga in Sonic the Hedgehog #31. But now that it’s here, the series is currently benefiting from Surge the Tenrec and Kitsunami the Fennec immensely because they are based on characters that readers obviously care about. It’s undoubtedly for this reason why the Metal Virus saga performed so well because it emulated how Dr. Robotnik roboticized Sonic’s friends and family in Archie’s series. After the Imposter Syndrome event ends, hopefully the series will continue riding this high wave and not fall back into the slump that has plagued it for far too long.

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